On his 21st birthday, Matthijs de Ligt went under the knife. The hope is that this surgery, one that has been a foregone conclusion for months now, will mean that he doesn’t have to spend another birthday getting his shoulder repaired and that the fear of him separating it is gone. Well, at least for the immediate future.
The benefit of de Ligt fighting through the pain in the second half of the season was that it helped ease the strain on a position group that had very little depth ever since January. And, as has been previously mentioned, it was likely why de Ligt didn’t get his shoulder operated on earlier because of everything going on.
Matthijs de Ligt had previously served as his own news network following Juventus’ Champions League exit when it came to revealing that he will be undergoing shoulder surgery ahead of next season.
Juventus announced de Ligt’s surgery in a statement on the club’s website on Wednesday, with the added piece of information: the big Dutchman will be out until November as he recovers from the procedure. The complete statement is as follows:
“This morning, Matthijs de Ligt underwent stabilisation surgery on his right shoulder, at the UPMC Salvator Mundi clinic in Rome. The operation, performed by Dr Volker Musahl, assisted by doctors, Bryson Lesniak and Fabrizio Margheritini and in the presence of Juventus’ Head of Medical Department, Luca Stefanini, was a complete success. The estimated recovery time is approximately three months.”
Despite not celebrating his birthday in a condition he would have liked, the ex-Ajax skipper still took to his Instagram to thank everyone who wished him well on both his birthday or his surgery.
With the new Serie A season set to begin on September 19, the Dutch international could be sidelined for the first two months of the domestic campaign. The 21-year-old defender made 39 total appearances in his first season with Juventus, all but three of which were starts.
De Ligt came in for major criticism at times during his debut season in Turin, but his performances stabilised as the season went on and he admitted he felt much more comfortable near the end of the campaign.
