Ekhator gives Spalletti one more card

Juventus have recovered an attacking option, even if Luciano Spalletti is unlikely to cash it in from the start.

Football Italia, citing reports from Gianluca Di Marzio, Tuttosport and other Italian outlets, said Jeff Ekhator is back in full training with Juventus. For a squad that has been rotating between Randal Kolo Muani and Nick Woltemade at centre-forward, that matters less as romance than as arithmetic: one more body, one different profile, one fewer compromise off the bench.

Ekhator’s move from Genoa cost Juventus €16m plus bonuses in the summer transfer window, but the first part of his season has been spent trying to get to the pitch at all. A muscular injury in a pre-season friendly against Basel kept him out until the second round of the Serie A campaign. He then made the bench against Parma without appearing, only to suffer a hamstring injury that has kept him out since.

That sequence is the story here as much as the return. Juventus did not buy a 19-year-old to admire his medical file, and young forwards lose time differently from older ones. A missed month for a finished player is inconvenience; for a developing one, it can mean postponed decisions, delayed trust and minutes handed elsewhere.

There is still a difference between full training and selection. Football Italia reported that Ekhator is not expected to go straight into the starting line-up after such a broken opening to the season. That is the sensible reading. Spalletti has regained an option, not solved a problem.

Still, options are what managers count when matches tighten. If Ekhator is fit enough to feature against Napoli, even briefly, Juventus gain something they have not had from him yet: the chance to use the signing they made, rather than plan around his absence.