Zaniolo sidelined again: hamstring injury, out 3-4 weeks

Nicolo Zaniolo is sidelined again. Back at Udinese after a national team camp where he had already missed the Belgium fixture with a physical problem, the tests confirmed the worst: a tear to the biceps femoris of his right thigh. The Friuli club announced the diagnosis in an official statement, putting the recovery time at 3-4 weeks.

For anyone fielding him in fantacalcio, the math is simple and bitter: he will certainly miss Torino-Udinese (12 October), Udinese-Lecce (18 October) and Udinese-Milan (25 October), with Parma-Udinese (28 October) also at risk. The most likely return, according to the club's early estimate, is the Halloween weekend, when Udinese host, in a curious twist of fate, Roma itself, the club that launched him in Serie A. Anyone hoping for an early comeback will still have to wait, since the rehabilitation process has only just begun in Udine, and with a more cautious approach the return could slip all the way to the early-November trip to Venezia.

Fantacalcio shows no mercy for long absences of an attacking midfielder valued at 17, in a band (11-20) where a good rating counts double but where a long drought is also felt heavily: Zaniolo had already lost a point of value since the start of the season, with the last negative move recorded at matchday 3. Anyone who bought him at auction hoping for a rebound will now have to watch Kosta Runjaic's bench to see who picks up his minutes going forward: up front Udinese can count on Davis and Bayo, with new signing Jovanovic set to be gradually worked into the rotation.

It is not an isolated problem for the Friuli club. The same statement also revealed the injury to Idrissa Gueye, who suffered an ankle sprain in the friendly against Pogon in Poland, which finished 1-1 (Gueye himself had put Runjaic's side ahead, before being pegged back five minutes later). No firm timeline has been given for the Senegalese midfielder: his situation will be reassessed week by week, which makes Udinese's return to the league, set for Monday 12 October against Torino at 8:45pm, even trickier.

Anyone with Zaniolo on their roster, in short, would do well to write him off for at least a month and look around for a temporary midfield replacement. The internal alternatives in that role, according to our price list, are modest: Ekkelenkamp valued at 12, Piotrowski at 7 and Karlstrom at 6, numbers that tell of a department that will have to reinvent itself without its heaviest name until late October. With a double injury blow at once, the midfield emergency for Runjaic is real, and anyone tracking Udinese's lineup would do well to watch the club's next statements before every matchday that matters.