Football: France's Pogba to miss World Cup after failing to recover from surgery

MILAN – Paul Pogba will miss France’s World Cup title defence after failing to recover from knee surgery in time for the Nov 20-Dec 18 tournament in Qatar, his agent said on Monday.

Pogba had an operation on a damaged meniscus in September

but his agent Rafaela Pimenta said that, following a medical review, he would not be able to return to the Juventus squad or join up with France before the tournament.

“Following yesterday and today’s medical review in Torino and Pittsburgh, it is extremely painful to inform (you that) Paul Pogba will still need recovery time from his surgery,” Pimenta said.

“So, Paul will not be able to join the Juventus squad before the World Cup break nor the French national team in Qatar. If wishful thinking would change things, Paul would be playing tomorrow.”

The 29-year-old midfielder’s hopes of returning to action with Juve before the World Cup were shot down in early October, when coach Massimiliano Allegri said the Italian club would realistically get him back only in January.

Pogba moved back to the Italian giants in the close-season after his contract with Manchester United expired, but he has yet to feature for them after sustaining a knee injury during their pre-season tour.

Juve released a statement saying “in the light of the recent radiological examinations... (Pogba) needs to continue his rehabilitation programme”.

France had already lost Chelsea midfielder N’Golo Kante,

who was ruled out for four months

after having an operation on his hamstring in mid-October. Manchester United defender Raphael Varane is luckier, with an initial diagnosis of a small hamstring tear giving him a chance of making it to Qatar.

Pogba was one of France’s most influential players in their 2018 World Cup triumph, scoring in the 4-2 final victory over Croatia as they won the title for the second time. France begin their World Cup campaign against Australia on Nov 22 before playing Denmark and Tunisia.

The French are not the only side with injury problems. Uruguay will be without Barcelona centre-back Ronald Araujo and Portugal are shorn of Diogo Jota.

Germany have concerns over the fitness of Bayern Munich duo Manuel Neuer and Leroy Sane.

Meanwhile, England manager Gareth Southgate’s prediction of a catalogue of injuries for the Three Lions is proving prescient with Reece James ruled out, while Kyle Walker and Kalvin Phillips are fighting to return to the squad.

“It’s a really packed schedule with a lot of players playing a lot of minutes. Realistically, we will lose more. It’s so intense and the players are playing so much football,” said Southgate.

The uprooting of football’s traditional calendar to fit in a first mid-season World Cup has resulted in fixture congestion at club level and little time for international managers to prepare.

To make space in the schedule, the group stages of European club competitions were squeezed into a two-month period. As a result, many clubs will have played 13 times in 42 days before the World Cup break.

There is no let-up once in Qatar either. Most sides face playing their three group games in just eight days.

According to a report earlier in 2022 by global players’ union FIFPro, 54 per cent of players said they had suffered an injury due to schedule overload, while 82 per cent of coaches said they observed mental-health issues in players caused by playing too many games. REUTERS, AFP