Abdoulaye Sow, a Senegal football federation board member, has revealed that Sadio Mane will miss the “first games” of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
The news come as a blow to the Lions of Teranga and football fans as a whole, who had hope that Mane recovers in time for the tournament.
However, the injury which he picked up in a Bundesliga game against Werder Bremen on Tuesday last, seems to be as serious as initially reported.
There was revived hope of seeing Mane in Qatar after Aliou Cisse had called him up to his Senegal squad, but Sow has now insisted that other players need to step up in Mane’s absence.
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“We will have to rely on playing the first games without Sadio and win without Sadio because we have 25 players apart from Sadio,” Sow said, as per ESPN.
“No one would have wanted it, but that’s what’s happened to us.”
Cisse himself was hopeful Mane would recover in time for the tournament after including the Bayern Munich star in his 26-man squad.
“I preferred to keep him in the group,” Cisse told reporters.
“Sadio Mane is an important player in our squad, it is important to continue to follow his injury, hoping that in two or three weeks there will be progress. But we are really optimistic.
“We will give ourselves all the necessary means to allow Sadio Mane to recover.”
The African Footballer of the Year has netted 11 goals and assisted another four since joining Bayern ahead of the 2022/23 campaign. He is also Senegal’s all-time record goalscorer with 33 goals.
