Juventus receive McKennie and Cambiaso boost ahead of Europa League opener

Nick Woltemade and Weston McKennie in training with Juventus (@juventus via X)

Juventus will take part in their first Europa League match of the 2026-27 season on Thursday night and Luciano Spalletti will be able to include both Weston McKennie and Andrea Cambiaso in his squad following their recent injury lay-offs. 

Juventus get McKennie and Cambiaso back for NEC, but no Kelly or Zhegrova

Juventus, who finished the 2025-26 Serie A season in sixth place, will host NEC Nijmegen at the Allianz Stadium in their first match of the 2026-27 Europa League campaign at 20.00 BST on Thursday night. 

The Bianconeri will be hoping that this is a confidence-booster after a disappointing 3-2 loss against Sassuolo in Serie A over the weekend. 

Juventus were without nine injured players for the Sassuolo match over the weekend: Cambiaso, McKennie among them, as well as Kenan Yildiz, Khephren Thuram, Manuel Locatelli, Jeremie Boga, Jeff Ekhator, Juan Cabal and Arkadiusz Milik. 

Spalletti will be relieved, however, following McKennie and Cambiaso’s participation in Tuesday and Wednesday’s training sessions, in full with the rest of the Bianconeri group.

According to reports from Gianluca Di Marzio, both are expected to be included in the matchday squad for the NEC match on Thursday. 

The Old Lady will still be without the other seven aforementioned players, as well as the suspended Lloyd Kelly and Edon Zhegrova, who is not on Juve’s UEFA squad list.