Since July 25, Paul Pogba was faced with a real dilemma. Injured in the lateral meniscus of the right knee in training, on the grounds of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, the French midfielder of Juventus Turin is now fixed on his fate. He can, in passing, heave a great sigh of relief. By avoiding the operation, the Frenchman whose unavailability is, according to his club, estimated at 5 weeks, will be able to play in the World Cup (November 21 – December 18). He is even likely to be back on the pitch with the Bianconeri in the match against Salernitana scheduled for the weekend of September 10-11.
“He will do conservative therapy for 5 weeks. The first part between the gym and the swimming pool, the second in the field with differentiated work before rejoining the group, ”explains Juventus on its social networks. Tuesday will therefore have proved decisive for “la Pioche”. He went to Lyon, to consult Bertrand Sonnery-Cotter there. The opinion of this knee specialist, who had operated on Zlatan Ibrahimovic in May 2022, promised to be decisive as to the therapy to be adopted.
The 29-year-old world champion, who returned to Juve this summer after six years at Manchester United, took off from Turin’s Caselle airport around 11:30 a.m. for France. Accompanied by the medical director of the transalpine club, Luca Stefanin, he left Lyon around 3 p.m. and landed half an hour later in the Piedmontese capital, disembarking at the airport, according to witnesses, with a slight limp and a smile a nothing tense, without blinking a word.
therapy with drugs
His choice to approach the French practitioner was not trivial. The doctor from Lyon is a leader in his field. In addition to Ibrahimovic, many top athletes have placed their trust in him: Karim Benzema in 2013, Nabil Fekir in 2018, Ada Hegerberg, rugby players Camille Lopez and Charles Ollivon and skier Tessa Worley.
He has therefore, obviously, obtained all the necessary guarantees. For the record, three options were available to him. Conservative therapy, therefore, but also meniscectomy and meniscal suture. The first, which was retained, is a therapy with drugs or movement that helps relieve symptoms without, for example, having to resort to surgery. The most important tasks of conservative (non-surgical) therapy are pain relief, promotion of healing processes after injuries or operations, improvement and restoration of joint and muscle function and correction of deformities.
The meniscectomy would have resulted in an absence of 40 to 60 days. The third, heavier but more certain in the long term, would have forced the player to three weeks on crutches and an unavailability of 3-4 months, with the risk of reaching up to five. By the way, the staff of the Blues breathes better. Given the importance of Pogba in the France group, his package for the World Cup, despite the emergence in his post of Aurélien Tchouaméni, would obviously have been a big blow.