Italian club Bologna suffered a major setback at the start of the new season as their veteran striker Ciro Immobile will be sidelined for eight weeks due to a thigh injury sustained during the team’s match against Roma in the first round of Serie A, which ended in a 0-1 loss for Bologna. The club confirmed in an official statement on Monday that medical tests showed the 35-year-old player injured his right thigh, sidelining him for nearly two months. Immobile returned to Serie A this summer after a brief stint in Turkey with Besiktas, where he scored 15 goals in 31 matches before terminating his contract that was valid until June 2026 with an option for an additional season.

The Italian striker has had a prolific career, starting with Juventus and moving through Genoa, Torino, Borussia Dortmund, Sevilla, and enjoying his most successful period with Lazio between 2016 and 2024, scoring 207 goals in 340 matches across all competitions and winning the Serie A top scorer award four times. He was also a key player in Italy’s Euro 2021 winning squad. In the 2019-2020 season, he equaled the Argentine Gonzalo Higuaín’s record by scoring 36 goals in a single Serie A season. However, his last season with Lazio saw a significant decline in his status and tensions with fans. This season, Bologna competes in the UEFA Europa League after winning the Italian Cup for the first time since 1974, a historic achievement for the club, but now faces the challenge of compensating for the absence of their new top scorer early in the campaign.