Pogba chooses not to be operated on. He will be out until mid-September

No meniscus surgery: the Frenchman opts for conservative therapy because he doesn’t want to miss the World Cup. Juventus will lose him for five weeks

TORINO

He took his time, talked to several specialists and in the end he dribbled the surgery. Paul Pogba loves to amaze on the pitch, but even outside of him he does not joke: the counterattack he placed after the injury of the lateral meniscus of the right knee, when the intervention seemed inevitable, is one that does not go unnoticed. The Juventus midfielder had a thousand doubts and above all wanted to avoid the most invasive intervention, but at the same time more decisive, with a suturing that would have led to a return in 2023 and therefore the certainty of watching the World Cup in front of the TV.

Even the hypothesis of an arthroscopic removal, with halved recovery times (a month and a half stop) and some unknowns of future relapse, was rejected by the French who preferred to take the third route. The most uncertain and full of unknowns, given that conservative therapy does not definitively solve the problem and does not offer absolute guarantees, but by now the choice has been made. Pogba will carry out a specific program that includes 5 weeks of absence and a possible return in mid-September: the first three weeks will divide the work between the gym, swimming pool and physiotherapy, while in the following 14 days he will do personalized training on the field.

So he will miss the first five league games (including Juve-Roma on 27 August) and his debut in the Champions League on 6-7 September, with the hope of returning to Allegri’s disposal between Salernitana and the second day of the most important cup. Then he will use the championship break to make sure he goes to Qatar in November.

The race against time started with the handbrake on, however, given that Pogba could already have been operated on in the United States immediately after the confirmation of the lateral meniscus rupture (diagnosed last July 25) and only now will the real start conservative therapy. Decisive was yesterday’s consultation in Lyon with the specialist Bertrand Cottet-Sonnery, in the presence of the Juventus health manager Luca Stefanini. Pogba at Caselle airport, where he was intercepted by the “paparazzi” (as he defined the journalists who were waiting for him), did not make any statements and did not hide the stiffness of his right leg.

Now a path of hard physiotherapy work awaits him, with the risk of seeing everything suddenly thwarted, but there has been no chance for Juventus to change his mind. Thus the list of injured days of the “Octopus” is lengthened: in the last three seasons at Manchester United he has been out for 439 days and 72 games overall and in Juve he stops after playing 45 minutes in the first test, against the Mexicans of the Chivas.

The Pogba case will be addressed today at Continassa in the expected meeting between Allegri and the management to take stock of the situation. The bianconeri dismiss the hypothesis of having to replace the world champion and so on the market they will be able to concentrate on finding the director who is still missing. Leandro Paredes is always in pole position, but with PSG it is about a loan and the agreement is still far away. The former Bianconero Pjanic has returned to propose himself, given that he is not part of the Barcelona project and has always had a feeling with Allegri. –