Before stopping a list, Didier Deschamps still works the old way. The coach of the France team notes by hand the names of the players selected. He also sometimes crosses them. This is the case of Paul Pogba, injured and forfeited for the World Cup in Qatar (from November 20 to December 18), and that not without difficulty when you know the relationship between the two men.
In a press release sent to several media, including The world, the player’s lawyer and agent, Rafaela Pimenta, made the bad news official. “After medical examinations yesterday [dimanche] and today [lundi]it is extremely painful to inform that Paul Pogba will still need rehabilitation after his operation [d’un genou, au début de septembre]. For this reason, Paul will not be able to join (…) the French team in Qatar”, she writes.
At 29, the midfielder lost a medical time trial that few saw him winning. The last images of Pogba on a football pitch date back to April. At the time, he still wore the Manchester United red jersey. When he finds Juventus Turin this summer, six years after leaving Italy, the Frenchman is still suffering from his meniscus but refuses the recommended operation, in order to increase, according to him, his chances of being operational in November for the Global. At the beginning of September, he agrees with the advice of the doctors.
At the same time, the player finds himself the victim of an incredible extra-sporting affair. Since then, his older brother Mathias – along with four other men – has been indicted for “extortion in an organized gang” and “participation in a criminal association with a view to preparing a crime”. The board is black.
In less than two weeks, Didier Deschamps lost his midfielder, at the heart of the game during the 2018 title, an association between two complementary men
In the last few days, the 2018 world champion had however resumed collective training with Juventus Turin, maintaining hope. This was before a new physical glitch, which occurred on Sunday: a thigh injury following muscle overload (according to Juventus) linked to the increase in the workload carried out in order to make up for lost time. Examinations carried out in Turin and then in Pittsburgh (United States) confirmed the nature of the injury, and Pogba made up his mind: this World Cup will be without him.
Without him and without N’Golo Kanté, package since October 18, victim of a hamstring injury. In less than two weeks, Didier Deschamps lost his midfielder, at the heart of the game during the 2018 title in Russia, an association between two men as different as they are complementary. There is “the nice” Kanté, the introvert who has become a darling of the French by dint of recovered balls and disarming smiles. Extroverted, solar and able to run his hair through all the colors of the rainbow, Pogba, meanwhile, has not always avoided superficial trials. But not in the France team, not with Didier Deschamps.
You have 46.05% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.
