{"id":19140,"date":"2026-07-20T10:51:43","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T10:51:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=19140"},"modified":"2026-07-20T10:51:43","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T10:51:43","slug":"napoli-send-sos-to-chelsea-after-buongiorno-and-beukema-injuries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=19140","title":{"rendered":"Napoli send SOS to Chelsea after Buongiorno and Beukema injuries"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p class=\"text-sm md:text-(17px) leading-relaxed text-gray-700 mb-4 md:mb-5\"><span>Massimiliano Allegri has lost Alessandro Buongiorno, who is likely facing surgery on a meniscus problem in his right knee that would rule him out for at least two to three months, while Sam Beukema is also struggling with a flare-up of a chronic Achilles tendon issue. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"text-sm md:text-(17px) leading-relaxed text-gray-700 mb-4 md:mb-5\"><span>Pending further updates, the Napoli coach will have to assess the options already in his squad, with Rafa Mar\u00edn and Luca Marianucci set to compete for a starting role.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"text-sm md:text-(17px) leading-relaxed text-gray-700 mb-4 md:mb-5\"><span>According to <\/span><span><em>La Gazzetta dello Sport<\/em><\/span><span>one possible market solution is Benoit Badiashile. The French Chelsea defender, left-footed and considered to have similar characteristics to Buongiorno, has been sounded out by Napoli as a potential reinforcement at the back. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"text-sm md:text-(17px) leading-relaxed text-gray-700 mb-4 md:mb-5\"><span>For now, though, the Blues appear unwilling to consider a loan: the player is among those Chelsea are willing to let go, but the formula proposed by Napoli has not found a positive response. Federico Gatti, of Juventus, also remains among the alternatives, a player particularly well regarded by Allegri.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"text-sm md:text-(17px) leading-relaxed text-gray-700 mb-4 md:mb-5\"><span>In the meantime, Napoli are also weighing up internal solutions. One possibility involves Mathias Olivera, who will return once his post-World Cup holiday ends. The Uruguayan is a natural left-back but has previously played as a centre-back, most notably under Antonio Conte during the title-winning season. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"text-sm md:text-(17px) leading-relaxed text-gray-700 mb-4 md:mb-5\"><span>His versatility makes him a possible option to play alongside Rrahmani in a back four.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"text-sm md:text-(17px) leading-relaxed text-gray-700 mb-4 md:mb-5\"><span>Chelsea&#8217;s reluctance to loan out Badiashile leaves Napoli with a harder decision to make. The 25-year-old, who stands at 1.94m, has made just 42 Premier League appearances across three and a half seasons at Stamford Bridge and is not considered part of Xabi Alonso&#8217;s plans, but the London club appear to want a permanent sale rather than a temporary switch. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"text-sm md:text-(17px) leading-relaxed text-gray-700 mb-4 md:mb-5\"><span>Newcastle United are also said to retain an interest in the Frenchman, should Chelsea open the door to a permanent departure.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"text-sm md:text-(17px) leading-relaxed text-gray-700 mb-4 md:mb-5\"><span>With Buongiorno expected to be sidelined until at least October and Beukema&#8217;s situation still being monitored, Allegri faces the prospect of starting the season with a defence patched together from internal options, unless the market situation shifts before the campaign begins.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Massimiliano Allegri has lost Alessandro Buongiorno, who is likely facing surgery on a meniscus problem&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19141,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}