Controversial Juventus midfielder and France national, Paul Pogba has been ruled out of France’s World Cup defence in the Qatar 2022 competition as it has been revealed that he needs more time to recover from a knee operation which he had recently taken.
Pogba who is currently 29 years old has not played for the Serie A side this season since re-joining from Manchester United in the summer because he has suffered from a knee injury in July and initially opted not to have surgery in a bid to be fit for the tournament.
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France’s first World Cup match is against Australia on 22 November.
In a statement on Monday, Pogba’s agent Rafaela Pimenta said: “Following yesterday’s and today’s medical review in Torino and Pittsburgh, it is extremely painful to inform Paul Pogba will still need recovery time from his surgery.
“For this reason, Paul will not be able to join Juventus’ squad before the World Cup break nor the French national team in Qatar.”
Pogba, whose last appearance for France came in a 5-0 friendly win over South Africa in March, returned to training early last month before opting for surgery, which had kept him on the sidelines until two weeks ago when he recommenced partial training with Juve.
In another report, Portuguese international, Cristiano Ronaldo grabbed a goal on his first Manchester United appearance since his refusal to come on as a substitute last week in a 3-0 win over Sheriff Tiraspol in the Europa League last night.
The Old Trafford side got the victory, with goals from Diogo Dalot and Marcus Rashford just before Ronaldo’s strike sealed it. The win has now guaranteed that the Red Devils will have a shot in the next round, where they are scheduled to join the likes of Barcelona who were knocked out of the Champions League at the group stage 24 hours earlier.
Africa Daily News, New York reports that United manager Erik ten Hag left the Portugal forward out of the United squad for Saturday’s draw at Chelsea and he was only allowed to return to first-team training this week.
