Alajbegovic, goal and scare with Bosnia: Barbarez reassures, just cramp

Kerim Alajbegović scored the equaliser for Bosnia against Sweden, but the closing minutes raised a concern back in Turin. The 2007-born midfielder, who joined Juventus from Bayer Leverkusen this summer, was one of the standouts of the night in Zenica: a well-saved shot in the first half, then the 1-1 goal in the 80th minute, off a short clearance from a free kick that wrong-footed Swedish keeper Viktor Johansson.

Seven minutes later, though, coach Barbarez had to call him off: the player asked the medical staff to look at his right thigh adductors, right at the best moment of his game. Seen from Turin, the substitution set off an immediate alarm, since Alajbegović has become one of the brightest notes of Juventus' start to the season.

Barbarez himself eased the worry in his press conference, explaining the substitution had nothing to do with an injury: the player had cramp and that is why he was taken off, the coach said, adding that several other players were in the same state because four matches in such a short span wear anyone down. By the coach's own account, that rules out a genuine muscle problem, pointing instead to the pile-up of matches between club and country rather than a strain.

How the player's body responds in the coming days is still to be seen: Bosnia's medical staff will keep monitoring him ahead of his return to Turin, and only training with Juventus will show whether the scare has really passed. For anyone who drafted him, this is the detail to watch: if the cramp stays an isolated episode, Alajbegović should be available to Spalletti without missing a matchday; if the discomfort comes back in training, that changes the picture.

In the meantime, the numbers already mark him as a name on fantasy managers' radar: a price of 12 in the 11-20 band, where a high rating earns an extra bonus point, still a bargain for an attacking midfielder competing for a starting spot with the likes of McKennie (16), Conceição and González (13 each). Anyone who picked him up cheap ahead of the busy run of fixtures can afford to wait for word from training before deciding whether to start him or leave him on the bench for the first matchday back from the break.