Pogba kicking his heels to return

LONDON • With just eight appearances in all competitions this season, it has been a nightmare campaign for Paul Pogba.

The France midfielder had been expected to flourish as Manchester United's creative fulcrum after an outstanding 2018-19 term saw him emerge as the club's top scorer with 13 Premier League goals and 16 in all competitions.

But a string of injuries, culminating in ankle surgery, has restricted him to a handful of games and zero minutes on the field since December.

Just as the World Cup winner was primed to return to action, the English top flight was halted on March 13 owing to the coronavirus pandemic.

All that time away from the game he loves has made Pogba more "hungry to come back and do well".

"I've been frustrated, a long time ago. I'm already training and touching the ball. I'm almost there, so I'm just thinking about getting back and training fully with the team and everything," the 27-year-old said in an interview on the official club podcast.

"You think bad, but I've never had something like this in my career, so I always take it in a good way.

"To be honest, yeah. I don't even know how it feels like any more. I can't wait to have this feeling again. I miss it because that's my job, to play football. I really enjoy playing football."

Pogba also revealed he first suffered a foot injury at the start of the season and aggravated the problem by playing through the pain barrier.

"You have to be very patient because, well my injury, I don't know if people really know what happened," he added.

"So I had a foot injury, which came in the (Aug 31) game against Southampton. It was early this season and so I carried this for a long time, training and trying to be playing with it.

"After I stopped, I found I had a fracture. I had a cast on it, a plaster cast, so it went very well but too well.

"The bone got bigger and so, when I came back again, I played those two games against Watford and Newcastle, I could feel something again.

"So I had to have an operation and now here I am. I don't feel anything, and hopefully, I'll be back very soon."

To make up for his lengthy absence, United signed Bruno Fernandes in the January transfer window and the Portuguese midfielder has since become a fan favourite at Old Trafford, landing multiple man-of-the-match awards.

With Pogba seemingly replaced, speculation has ramped up over his future, with compatriot and former United defender Mikael Silvestre last week telling the Talk of the Devils podcast "it doesn't look like his head is at United anymore".

However, January loan signing Odion Ighalo feels the midfield duo still have a future together and can make "United great again".

The Nigerian striker moved from Chinese Super League outfit Shanghai Shenhua on loan and has impressed with four strikes in eight matches. He said yesterday in an interview on Twitter that he was excited over the offensive possibilities that could come about from the two midfielders.

"He (Pogba) is working hard to get back to fitness and imagine when we have him and Bruno in the midfield, then you will see a different team - (Marcus) Rashford coming back also," Ighalo added. "Manchester United is going to be... winning games week in, week out."

REUTERS