Tuesday night was an unfortunate one for Bayern Munich and Senegalese forward, Sadio Mane, who incurred an injury that has now ruined his hope of participating actively for Senegal at the 2022 World Cup, which kicks off in Qatar in 13 days’ time.
This was hours after the Senegalese Coach, Aliou Cisse, announced Mane in his 26-man World Cup squad.
The Senegalese forward copped a knee injury in Bayern Munich’s 6-1 thrashing of Werder Bremen on Tuesday night. Mane had to come off in the 20th minute after signalling for medical attention.
According to the Bayern manager Julian Nagelsmann, “He got hit on the top part of the tibia which always makes you feel uncomfortable. He needs to have an x-ray to look whether there is anything bad because this part easily splinters. We hope that it’s nothing (serious).”
Mane was instrumental to Senegal’s first-ever Nations Cup triumph following a decisive penalty win over Mohamed Salah’s Egypt last February. A similar scenario also played out against the Pharaohs during the World Cup qualifiers.
Before Mane’s unfortunate circumstance, injuries had also ruled a handful of players out of the World Cup. Injury has also ruled out England defender Reece James and German forward Timo Werner.
Others are Paul Pogba and N’Golo Kante (France), Diogo Jota (Portugal), Georginio Wijnaldum (Netherlands), and Ben Chilwell (England).