Launched in a time trial since his right knee injury on July 25, in a technical exercise during Juventus Turin’s preparation camp at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, Paul Pogba finally opted for the risk and chose to take a shortcut.
While Juventus, once again his employer since his transfer this summer, wanted him to have surgery on the affected meniscus, even if it meant missing the World Cup, the French international (29 years old, 91 caps) favored the option who best preserved, in his eyes, his chances of playing the third World Cup of his career, in Qatar (November 21-December 18).
After considering having him operated on the spot for the lesion of the right lateral meniscus, in California, Juve had decided to repatriate Pogba to have him examined in Turin, in his medical center, but also in Lyon, at the Paul-Santy Orthopedic Center. , with one of the European knee specialists, Doctor Bertrand Sonnery-Cottet. It is this meeting in Lyon, it seems, which pushed Pogba to the choice of a “conservative therapy”, according to the term of the spokesman of Juventus, yesterday, at the start of the evening.
Eyes on the Blues
His two initial choices did not suit him: he did not want either the removal of the damaged meniscus, through a selective meniscectomy, which would have resulted in an unavailability of a month and a half to two months, or a suture of the area concerned, without touching the meniscus, which would have involved an absence of three to five months and would have deprived him for sure of the World Cup.
Specifically, according to Tuttosport, “conservative therapy” consists of three weeks in the gym and swimming pool, then two weeks of individual work before returning to the group. Paul Pogba should therefore only be unavailable for five weeks, if all goes well, and be able to prepare for the World Cup that the France team will start on November 22 against Australia in Doha.
Obviously, he made this bet by favoring the Blues, at the risk of angering Juve, but at the risk, also, of not being completely cured by refusing the operation. While he has only played 16 matches in 2022, including two with the Blues, for a meager total of 1,005 minutes of play, he remains engaged in a fragile time trial.
His choice necessarily echoes that of Samuel Umtiti who had chosen not to have surgery on his left knee in 2018, preferring to give himself a chance to become world champion, but who has been fighting to regain his best athletic level since. In the meantime, it seems unlikely to see the Turinese again with the Blues at the end of September, against Austria and Denmark. Its horizon has long been set for November 22, in Qatar.