French midfielder Paul Pogba is a big doubt for the World Cup in Qatar as he needs surgery for a knee injury.
The 29-year-old, who left Manchester United to join Juventus in the summer, has not yet taken part in this campaign after suffering an injury in pre-season and the club decided he needed to have surgery to fix the problem.
The first match of the French defense World Cup is against Australia on November 22, and Juve manager Massimiliano Allegri has ruled out Pogba for his team this year.
However, that doesn’t mean he won’t be able to play until January, as the Italian league season stops for the World Cup in mid-November and won’t resume until 2023.
“Last month, Pogba decided not to undergo surgery after injuring his meniscus in training after the season change, but Allegri says circumstances changed after he tried to train again.
This morning Pogba trained for the second time, but then he stopped and then it was decided to have him operated, “Allegri said Monday at a press conference before the opening match of the Champions League against Paris St Germain.
“Realistically we will buy it back in January.
“The World Cup is not my problem, Juventus’ problem is that they are back in January”.
Pogba was instrumental in France’s victory at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, scoring in the final where they beat Croatia 4-2 to lift the trophy after a 20-year gap. He scored 11 goals in 91 appearances for France.
His injury comes at a difficult time as he accused his brother Mathias of extortion.
French authorities are investigating allegations that Pogba was the target of an extortion plot by his brother and childhood friends asking for € 13 million.
Paul Pogba reportedly told investigators that the blackmailers aimed to discredit him by claiming that a wizard had cast a spell on French superstar Mbappe.
Pogba denied the charge and on Monday Mbappe sided with his international teammate.
“He called me, gave his side of the story,” Mbappe said. «It is the word of him against the word of his brother. I’d rather take the word of a teammate.
“He (Paul Pogba) already has problems and I think now is not the time to add more. We’ll see how it goes, I’m quite detached from all this. “
French officials said Pogba paid 100,000 euros to the group after being threatened by masked and armed men in a Paris apartment in March.
with agencies