Thursday’s reports indicate that Juventus hope to have both of their deadline day signings, Lois Openda and Edon Zhegrova, available for the Derby d’Italia against rivals Inter, but one of the new recruits is expected to be in better shape than the other.
Juventus capped off their summer transfer business with the signings of Openda from RB Leipzig and Zhegrova from Lille on the final day of the summer transfer window.
According to reports from Tuttosport, Openda, who is expected to be involved for Belgium against Liechtenstein on Thursday evening, is also in line to be part of the team that takes on Inter immediately after the international break on September 13.
Thursday’s report claims that Zhegrova is also pushing to be involved against Inter next weekend, but there are slightly more concerns over his fitness compared to Openda.
With Openda, there are few doubts given that he had a full pre-season with RB Leipzig, played as a starter in the first round of the DFB Pokal and had two substitute appearances in the Bundesliga before securing his move to Juventus.
Zhegrova, meanwhile, has not played in around nine months, dating back to Marseille-Lille in Ligue 1 on December 14, 2024.
Zhegrova returned to training in August, and decided to not play for his national team, Kosovo, during the September international break in order to work on his physical condition according to reports from Tuttosport.
Tuttosport maintains that Zhegrova could be involved against Inter, but it is unlikely that he will be thrown in as a starter given his lengthy injury lay-off.
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