An assist and less than 180 minutes of play in total. Here is the final assessment, in all competitions, of the season of Paul Pogba, who hoped to relaunch his career by committing last summer to Juventus. It’s simple, the midfielder of the Blues had the worst year of his professional career, taking part in only ten short matches with the Turin club. We hoped to launch it for good last week, after his decisive offering for Frederico Gatti (1-1, 90th + 7), during the semi-final first leg of the Europa League against Sevilla FC (1-1). But his first tenure of the season, Sunday against Cremonese (2-0) came to an end.
The former Mancunian was again the victim of an injury to the “rectus femoris muscle of the left thigh”, resulting in his replacement from the 23rd minute of play and an unavailability between two and three weeks. Suffice to say that the result of these medical examinations carried out on Monday confirms the end of the Serie A (and Europa League) season for Paul Pogba. It is also hard to imagine Didier Deschamps summoning him for the next gathering of the Blues, with matches against Gibraltar on June 16 then Greece on June 19, during the qualifications for Euro 2024.
“We will be looking forward to it”
Just after his strike that caused this umpteenth injury, “la Pioche” collapsed on the ground then left the Turin lawn, hiding tears under his jersey. His ordeal in 2022-2023 was first marked by a right knee injury in July, which required an operation in early September and which deprived him of the start of the season in Italy as well as the World Cup in Qatar.
Finally unavailable until the end of February, he had to stop for a month in March after a right thigh injury. His return seemed more convincing for a month, until this new terrible blow. “Paul is now a man with children and he has the shoulders broad enough to overcome this muscular injury, slipped his trainer Massimiliano Allegri to support him. When you are absent for a year, it is unfortunately normal that the risk of injury increases. We are sorry and we will look forward to it. »
In this catastrophic season, we can also cite his delay in a gathering of the Juve group on March 8, which deprived him of the round of 16 first leg of the Europa League the next day against Friborg (1-0). And above all, there was obviously this insane Pogba affair, triggered by the publication in August 2022 of the video of his older brother Mathias. He then announced that he wanted to make explosive revelations about Paul. The tricolor international would indeed have been the victim of extortion of funds amounting to 13 million euros, between March and July 2022. Or just before the endless cascade of injuries to the tricolor international.