Scott McTominay, Napoli's 29-year-old Scottish midfielder, has returned to training following a cardiac ablation procedure performed to correct a mild arrhythmia, with our estimate placing a competitive return around 26 September — a date that coincides, pointedly, with Napoli's fixture calendar beginning to ease.

The significance is not merely medical. McTominay has been absent since 5 September, missing both the Napoli-Bologna match on 13 September and the Fiorentina-Napoli fixture on 20 September without even a place on the bench. In that time, Massimiliano Allegri's side have settled into ninth place in Serie A with seven points from five matches — two wins, a draw, and two defeats — a return that reflects a squad still calibrating to its new coach rather than one pulling in a clear direction.

The ablation itself is a well-established procedure for arrhythmia, and the resumption of athletic training is the clearest signal that McTominay's condition has been resolved rather than managed. What the club has not provided is an official return date, and the distinction matters: training load after cardiac intervention is graduated carefully, and the step from individual work to full-contact sessions to match fitness is not a formality.

When McTominay did play in Serie A this season — two appearances before the injury — he averaged a rating of 6.45, numbers that suggest a player still settling into the rhythms of Italian football rather than dominating them. His AI overall of 73 out of 100 positions him as a reliable rather than decisive presence, a midfielder whose value tends to accumulate through volume and intensity rather than single moments of invention. Both qualities require fitness, and fitness is precisely what the next two weeks will determine.

Allegri, whose Napoli side have conceded six goals in five matches while scoring seven, has spoken through the club's broader context about demanding greater intensity from his players — a register that suits McTominay's profile well, if he can get back to full sharpness. The Scot's return would give Allegri a physically combative option in the centre of the park at a moment when the team's results suggest the midfield balance is not yet right.

The next fixture will tell us whether the timeline holds.