Juventus suspend three players after illegal party
By Tom Gott
Juventus have temporarily suspended first-team trio Weston McKennie, Paulo Dybala and Arthur after they were found to have attended a party which breached Covid-19 restrictions at the American midfielder's home.
It is forbidden to organise private parties in Italy under the current rules, while there is also a curfew in place from 10pm until 5am, meaning everybody is expected to be in their own homes between those hours.
As noted by Il Corriere dello Sport, police were called to McKennie's home at around 11:30pm on Wednesday night, where they found ten people, including McKennie, Dybala and Arthur.
The trio have all been fined by both police and the club, while all three have been temporarily suspended and will therefore miss Saturday's meeting with Torino - a game which Arthur was set to miss through injury anyway.
Football Italia even add that the trio's suspension could last even longer and their involvement in Wednesday's meeting with Napoli (which is yet to be officially confirmed) is under threat as well.
"I'll take the floor to talk about the party the other night, so then we'll think about the match," manager Andrea Pirlo said at the start of his pre-match press conference. "The three the players involved are not called up for tomorrow's match. We'll see when they get back to work. I don't want to have anything to do with this any more."
Juventus are obviously furious about the safety breach, but they are also disappointed to see three first-team players acting so irresponsibly on the eve of such an important derby game, particularly given the team's need to bounce back after a shock 1-0 loss to Benevento before the international break.
Dybala took to Instagram to apologise for his role in the event, writing: "I know that in such a difficult time in the world with Covid it would have been better not to make mistakes, but I was wrong to stay out for dinner. It was not a party, but I was still wrong and I apologise."
It leaves the Juventus squad in even worse shape. Pirlo has just lost Leonardo Bonucci to a positive Covid-19 test, while Alex Sandro, Merih Demiral and Aaron Ramsey are all dealing with injury and illness too.
The defeat to Benevento last time out left Juventus down in fourth in the Serie A standings, ten points behind leaders Inter, and another defeat to Torino could be the final nail in the coffin for their title hopes.