Juventus forward Kenan Yıldız has not featured for the Bianconeri since sustaining a foot injury on 29 August 2026, missing consecutive Serie A fixtures against Sassuolo on 13 September and Atalanta on 21 September — absent from the matchday squad entirely on both occasions, not even named among the substitutes.
The absence matters because Juventus under Luciano Spalletti are still finding their shape. Seven matches into the season the club sits seventh in Serie A with ten points from five league matches — a record of three wins, one draw, and one defeat, with eight goals scored and four conceded. That is a functional start, not a commanding one, and the margin for tactical improvisation narrows when a player of Yıldız's profile is unavailable.
He has appeared in just one Serie A match this season, registering neither a goal nor an assist, though his average rating of 7.20 in that single outing suggests he contributed meaningfully before the injury intervened. His AI overall of 77 out of 100, with a potential of 85, frames the stakes clearly: Yıldız is not yet the finished article, but the gap between where he is and where the data suggests he can go is precisely the kind of development curve Spalletti was presumably brought in to accelerate.
In his absence, others have stepped into the attacking structure. Match ratings from the Juventus-NEC fixture indicate that Alajbegovic performed well enough that Yıldız was not conspicuously missed on that particular night, and Nico González drew particular praise. That is useful squad depth for Spalletti to discover, but it also introduces a competitive pressure that Yıldız will need to answer when fit.
Our estimate, based on the nature of the foot injury, places his return around 10 October 2026. That is not an official date confirmed by the club, and foot injuries carry enough variability that the timeline should be treated as approximate. What it does suggest is that Yıldız could be available again before the international break disrupts the calendar, giving Spalletti a window to reintegrate him gradually rather than throwing him straight into a high-stakes fixture.
The 21-year-old has time on his side in the broadest sense. But in a Juventus side still settling its hierarchy under a new coach, weeks on the treatment table are not neutral — they cede ground to teammates who are proving their reliability in real match conditions. Yıldız's return will tell us as much about Spalletti's intentions as it does about the player's recovery.