Buongiorno injured: how many Napoli games he will miss and potential replacements

Alessandro Buongiorno’s injury will deprive Napoli’s Antonio Conte of a key defensive option that gave a crucial contribution to making their rearguard the most solid in Serie A.

The Partenopei confirmed on Monday that the centre-back sustained a vertebral fracture after falling in training, an injury meaning that he should not be able to play again in 2024.

How many games Buongiorno will miss after vertebrae injury

According to Sky Sport Italia, Buongiorno is expected to remain out of action for nearly a month, a scenario that would rule the defender out of games against Genoa, Venezia, Fiorentina and Verona, the two latter fixtures being scheduled at the beginning of the new year.

Napoli hope to have him back by mid-January, as they will take on Atalanta and Juventus in consecutive games after that moment, on January 19 and 26, respectively.

How Napoli will replace Buongiorno

With their best defender out for at least four Serie A matches, Antonio Conte will need to decide how to replace the 25-year-old, considering he played all of Napoli’s league games this season for the entire 90 minutes, except for their debut against Verona back in August due to injury.

Back then, Juan Jesus started in Buongiorno’s place alongside Amir Rrahmani, with his poor display contributing to his side’s 3-0 defeat at the Stadio Bentegodi.

As suggested by Calciomercato.com, new signing Rafa Marin could also be an alternative, but he still has to make his Serie A debut this season despite having played twice in Coppa Italia, including in the Partenopei’s recent 3-1 defeat at the hands of Lazio.

If Conte doesn’t trust any of these replacements, his only option would be switching to a back-three or deploying either Giovanni Di Lorenzo or Matias Olivera as centre-backs.