Massimo Pinca/Associated Press

Updates from Tuesday, June 17

Tom Williams of the Agence France-Presse provides an update on Arturo Vidal's status:

The Sydney Morning Herald passes along more details from Vidal:

He has been recovering from a knee operation just more than a month ago on a meniscus problem, but Vidal says he is now fully fit. "The knee is responding very well, I'm in very good condition and I hope to start," he said. "I'm good, 100 per cent physically and I'm not thinking about my knee."

Updates from Friday, June 13

Footballespana reports Chile's Starting XI:

Updates from earlier in the day:

Arturo Vidal is expected to feature in Chile's World Cup opener against Australia on Friday, but coach Jorge Sampaoli admits the midfielder will be risking his long-term fitness.

ESPN FC's Dermot Corrigan provides the latest:

Gary Medel, a team-mate of Vidal, commented on the Juventus star's condition following Chile's latest training session, per Physio Room:

Updates from Thursday, June 12

BBC Sport has an encouraging update regarding Arturo Vidal's World Cup status: "Chile coach Jorge Sampaoli says there is a "high possibility" that Arturo Vidal will be fit enough to play after training fully for the last three days."

Updates from Tuesday, June 10

Arturo Vidal will not recover in time for Chile's opening game of the World Cup, as he continues to strive for full fitness following knee surgery.

The Sun tweeted on Tuesday:

Updates from Thursday, May 8

Juventus have confirmed the successful operation performed on Arturo Vidal, but no indication has been given as to whether he will be fit for the World Cup.

Juve's official website reported:

Arturo Vidal this morning underwent a partial lateral meniscectomy operation on his right knee in Barcelona. The surgery was carried out by Dr. Ramon Cugat, in the presence of medical staff from Juventus and the Chilean national team. The midfielder will be discharged tomorrow and return to Turin for the continuation of his rehabilitation programme.

Original Text

Chilean midfielder Arturo Vidal has officially played his final Juventus match of the season, as the 26-year-old will undergo surgery to repair an injury to his right meniscus.

The club's official website confirmed Vidal was in Barcelona for an examination on Tuesday, with the operation set to take place on Wednesday:

Arturo Vidal this afternoon conducted an orthopedic examination in Barcelona, attended also by the Chilean international medical team. Tomorrow morning will see the midfielder undergo arthroscopic surgery on the lateral meniscus of his right knee, supervised by professor Ramon Cugat.

The club later posted an update that Vidal had gone through a successful surgery.

Chile's team physician, Dr. Giovanni Carcuro, confessed a timetable for Vidal's return would be difficult to set, but he refused to rule the player out of the upcoming World Cup, per the Associated Press, via Fox News:

The [recovery] period is the most important question and the one that worries us the most. Unfortunately, in these cases, it's not something so definite. We can say that the player is by no means ruled out from the World Cup. But we don't either have lots of time and giant and super-relaxed deadlines.

Since moving to the Italian giants from Bayer Leverkusen in 2011, Vidal has blossomed into one of the best box-to-box midfielders in European football.

With extraordinary physical ability, a nose for goal and a tendency to boss opponents around in midfield, he has arguably been the club's most important performer in 2013-14.

This was never more obvious than during the team's Europa League defeat at the hands of Benfica, who effectively neutralised Andrea Pirlo during the first leg of the semi-final, a match Vidal missed with the same injury now requiring surgery.

Juventus locked up the Serie A title during the weekend and are no longer active in any other competition, which is likely why Vidal opted to have the surgery now. He hadn't been the same player in recent weeks and openly complained about pain and swelling in his right knee.

Goal's Carlo Garganese has learned Vidal's recovery time could potentially take as long as 12 weeks:

Chile's opening match at the upcoming World Cup will take place on June 13, giving Vidal five weeks of recovery time. However, in a difficult group containing Spain and the Netherlands, the silver lining is perhaps the team's opponent in their opening fixture.

While every team is deserving of praise for making it to the final tournament, Australia are one team the Chileans should be able to dominate with or without Vidal. With top talents like Alexis Sanchez, Mauricio Isla and Eduardo Vargas all available to Jorge Sampaoli, the Argentinian can afford to rest his star midfielder against the Socceroos.