Barely back to Juventus in Turin, Paul Pogba was injured in training on the sidelines of the American tour of the Italian club. This lesion of the lateral meniscus of the right knee will, in any case, spoil his start to the season. Pending various medical opinions, he cannot rule out the possibility of a package for the World Cup in Qatar (November 21 – December 18). According to a source in the player’s entourage, quoted by AFP, the dilemma lies between surgery or not. The operation could result in four months of absence at worst, too much for the World Cup, but also two months at best, which would leave time. But the player could also treat himself without sparing himself, thus, a too long period of convalescence, explains one of the same source. Returning to Italy, the Pickaxe will be examined by the staff of J Medical (Juventus medical center), then by Doctor Sonnery Cottet, surgeon at the Santy Orthopedic Center in Lyon, who notably operated on Zlatan Ibrahimovic at the end of May.
The French midfielder, metronome of the Blues world champions in 2018 alongside Ngolo Kanté, has lived through the last complicated seasons, chaining injuries. Since the title of the Blues in Russia, he has experienced repeated physical glitches (malleoli, ankle, hamstring, calf …), causing him to miss a total of 74 games with Manchester United in all competitions.
Absent from Didier Deschamps’ last rally in May 2022 for a calf injury, the Blue with 91 selections is clearly not in the physical shape of his life. He was waiting for a rebirth by committing to conquered territory at Juve, a club he had rubbed shoulders with from 2012 to 2016, but his hopes were quickly overtaken by his body.
The last season of La Pioche had, moreover, ended prematurely with Manchester United. Hit in the calf after less than ten minutes of play on April 19 on the Liverpool side, he did not play again afterwards. Between November 2021 and February 2022, already, the native of Lagny-sur-Marne had spent his time in the infirmary, without playing a single match.
During the last 4 years, it is especially his recurring problem with an ankle which has most prevented the tricolor midfielder from flourishing on the ground. Between October 2, 2019 and June 5, 2020, he had thus been absent subscribers during a season, in part, truncated by the cessation of competitions linked to the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. It already seemed a long way off then, his first period at Juventus Turin where he had only missed eleven matches through injury in four years, all in 2013-14, leaving the other three perfectly unscathed.