Roma Looking to Regroup After Dybala Injury Blow | OneFootball

Paulo Dybala initially resisted the idea of having surgery on his torn tendon, as he has never gone the knife despite his injury history, but the Roma higher-ups convinced him it was the best route to heal completely, Corriere dello Sport informs.

The team and the player spoke with a few luminaries. One was brought in to visit him. While the issue could have perhaps healed with simpler therapy in a month and a half, the risk of relapse would have been significant. The operation will happen early next week once they pick which specialist to turn to. It’s a tricky one since the area is only four to seven millimeters long.

Roma will have to make do without Dybala for the final nine matches of the season. The Giallorossi haven’t lost in 13 Serie A games and have won in the last 6. La Joya wished to contribute to the push to make the top four, which is only five points away.

Claudio Ranieri will test a few solutions to compensate for the massive absence, Il Messaggero relays (via OneFootball). The most straightforward ones are Matias Soulé and Tommaso Baldanzi, who are also left-footed. The former has scored two of his three season goals in the past month, while the Italian attacker is always peppy.

Roma will need to find a new technical leader sans Dybala. The coach hopes Lorenzo Pellegrini will step into that role even though he’s been pedestrian for a couple of months. If that doesn’t happen, he’ll move pieces around, deploying Alexis Saelemaekers or Stephan El Shaarawy at no.10. He could also go with a 3-5-2 with Artem Dovbyk and Eldor Shomurodov together and a more muscular midfield.