Juventus Faces Foreign XI Against Sassuolo Amid Injuries

Juventus set for almost all-foreign XI in Sassuolo clash as injuries bite

One of the liveliest debates of the opening weeks of the 2026-27 Serie A season hasn’t been about tactics or title favorites. It’s been about passports.

Across the league, several of the biggest clubs have rolled out starting lineups with barely a trace of Italian representation. The lightning rod for that conversation has been Como, the billionaire-backed fairy tale that has already sent out multiple XIs without a single Italian on the pitch from the first whistle.

Juventus aren’t quite at that extreme. Not yet. But they are about to get uncomfortably close.

Spalletti’s injury-hit Juventus stripped of Italians

Luciano Spalletti heads to the Mapei Stadium on Sunday night expecting to name a Juventus side with just one Italian in the starting XI against Sassuolo. One.

That lone standard-bearer is set to be goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario, unless Spalletti springs something unexpected at the last moment. The rest of the lineup, stripped by injuries and selection choices, looks destined to be entirely foreign.

This is not some grand ideological shift. It’s a product of what can only be described as an injury blitz ripping through the Italian core of the squad.

Manuel Locatelli, one of only two Italians to start each of the first three games alongside Vicario, is gone until 2027 after undergoing surgery to repair his meniscus. Andrea Cambiaso has been sidelined since the opening matchday. Jeff Ekhator, viewed as one of the brighter young Italian striker prospects in the country, has missed most of preseason and will be out for a couple more months.

Federico Gatti, the other obvious option to tilt the balance back toward the home flag, has been reduced to impact-sub status. Even after his late heroics against AC Milan last weekend, he remains behind Gleison Bremer and Jhon Lucumí in the pecking order. Unless Spalletti tears up his defensive hierarchy, Gatti will again be watching the kickoff from the bench.

Strip all that away, and Juventus are left with Vicario as the only Italian likely to hear his name read out in the starting lineup.

A rare sight in black and white

If it plays out that way, it will mark the first time since February 2023 that Juventus have started a match with just one Italian on the pitch.

The trend has been building quietly over the first three games of this campaign. Even then, the Italian presence was thin. Vicario and Locatelli were the only regulars. Gatti has been a backup from day one. Cambiaso disappeared from contention as soon as he picked up his injury. Zeki Çelik has locked down the left-back spot, starting all three matches there.

Now Locatelli is out of the picture, Cambiaso is still in the treatment room, and Ekhator is nowhere near a return. The Italian spine that should define a Juventus side has been reduced to a single goalkeeper.

For any club that would be notable. For Juventus, it feels jarring.

The symbolism of Vicario

This is Italy’s most decorated club, a team historically built around Italian identity and leadership, no matter its current turbulence. To see only one Italian step onto the pitch in black and white from the start cuts against decades of tradition.

And that one Italian? He’s a newcomer.

Vicario wasn’t even a Juventus player a few months ago. He looks and sounds every inch the Juventino already, fully tuned into what it means to be both Italian and a representative of this club. But he is still only around 270 minutes into his Juventus career. Three full games, nothing more.

On Sunday night, he may find himself not just protecting the goal, but carrying the weight of a flag and a history, almost entirely on his own.