Atalanta forward Charles De Ketelaere has been ruled out of training alongside teammate Ahanor, placing both players in doubt for the Conference League play-off first leg against Hapoel Tel Aviv on August 20 and the Serie A opener against Sassuolo — two fixtures that arrive within days of each other and demand a full attacking complement from Raffaele Palladino's side.
The timing sharpens the stakes considerably. Atalanta enter 2026-27 already managing the absence of Kamaldeen Sulemana, sidelined for at least two months with a serious knee injury. Losing De Ketelaere, even briefly, strips la Dea of depth and creativity in the same positions at the worst possible moment. Conference League qualification rounds punish thin squads; they do not wait for fitness schedules to clear.
What makes De Ketelaere's absence particularly costly is the quality his presence represents. The 25-year-old Belgian finished 2025-26 with three goals and five assists across 31 Serie A appearances, carrying an average match rating of 7.20 — a figure that places him among the more reliable contributors in Atalanta's attack over the course of a full season. He is not a player who manufactures headlines through volume; his value is in the consistency of his involvement and the quality of his decision-making in the final third. An AI overall score of 71 with a ceiling assessed at 78 suggests a player still ascending, not one who has found his plateau.
Palladino's Atalanta finished seventh last season with 59 points from 38 matches, a record of fifteen wins, fourteen draws and nine defeats. The draw count tells its own story — a team that rarely collapsed but too often settled. De Ketelaere's ability to unlock tight defences, reflected in those five assists, was central to the moments when Atalanta did find a way through. Without him for the opening fixtures, Palladino must find that function elsewhere.
The club has moved in the transfer window — Rasmus Kristensen has arrived from Udinese, and Ciro Gaetano has been presented — but those are defensive and midfield reinforcements. The attacking injury list, now featuring De Ketelaere and Sulemana alongside the earlier loss of Ahanor, is where the squad looks genuinely stretched.
De Ketelaere has the profile to be central to everything Atalanta want to do this season. The question is whether he can recover in time to matter from the first whistle, or whether Bergamo's ambitions begin the campaign one step behind.