Paulo Dybala will watch the second leg of Juventus' Champions League round-of-16 tie with Bayern Munich from his own living room due to injury, but hopes he will return to fitness in time for the Serie A title run-in.
Dybala, 22, stayed in Turin nursing a calf injury rather than travel with the rest of the squad to Germany to face Bayern, against whom he scored in the first-leg 2-2 draw.
Juve coach Massimiliano Allegri admitted on Tuesday that he has made the decision "not to risk" Dybala, who he hopes to have ready for an important final few months of the season.
Whether that will include two, four, five or no further Champions League games will be determined at the Allianz Arena on Wednesday -- and all Dybala can do is watch.
A photo posted by Paulo Dybala (@paulodybala) on
"The disappointment at not being able to be in Munich to fight with the lads was strong! But I'm working to get back as soon as possible," Dybala wrote on Instagram, underneath a picture of him lying on a sofa -- his pew for Wednesday's game.
Even without Dybala, Giorgio Chiellini and Claudio Marchisio, Juve can still pull of a coup by beating Bayern, according to their experienced captain Gianluigi Buffon.
"They are stronger than us, but we need to show less fear than in the first leg and hope things go our way," Buffon, 38, told Mediaset. "We could have done without [the injuries], but Juve's strength has been the group and this is the moment for us to prove it. In brief periods of time, absences have less of an impact -- you only pay for them in the long term.
"They were stronger than us for an hour in the first leg, but then we succeeded -- for a thousand different reasons -- to turn around an almost desperate situation which only very few could have turned around.
"We've got to build on this; from the fact that we are a good side and we've got what it takes, the quality and the conviction to make it hard for Bayern to go through."
Juve need either to win the game, draw 2-2 and win on penalties, or draw while scoring more than two goals to continue their progress towards a second straight Champions League final.