Chris
Because of how the first 14 months of Paul Pogba’s return to Juventus have gone (and even a few years before that will he was still in Manchester), the immediate reaction whenever another potential injury comes about is to simply think about how much time he will miss. That was again the case as Max Allegri addressed the media after Juventus’ 2-0 win over Empoli on Sunday night and said that Pogba “felt a twinge” during his second-half appearance off the bench.
Less than 24 hours later, Pogba was walking through the doors at J Medical, a place that he is surely tired of visiting time and time again since coming back to Juve last summer.
Those tests revealed that Pogba hadn’t sustained any kind of significant muscle injury, instead “a slight overload of the semimembranosus muscle,” according to a post on Juventus’ website on Monday. Juve also revealed that Federico Gatti, who was in the starting lineup for the first time this season Sunday night, suffered a sprained ankle against Empoli despite the fact he played a full 90 minutes.
What we don’t know if just what the “slight overload” means for Pogba going forward the next few weeks. Same goes for Gatti and the severity in which he sprained his ankle. The good thing, obviously, is that it’s now an international break and neither player was slated to go on international with France and Italy, respectively, so they were always going to hang back in Turin and train with the other players who weren’t called up by their national teams.
So here’s to hoping that Pogba can at least get himself fit enough to be an option off the bench again when Juve return to action against Lazio two Saturdays from now. Same goes for Gatti even though he’s so tough of a dude that he’d probably break his leg and still try to play through it.
N
