Mane has surgery on his thumb injury
Liverpool forward Sadio Mane has undergone an operation on the thumb injury he sustained on international duty with Senegal.
It has been a troubled break for the Reds, with Mohamed Salah and Naby Keita also doubts for Saturday’s Premier League clash with Huddersfield, while Virgil van Dijk has been playing despite a rib problem.
A statement said: “Liverpool Football Club can confirm Sadio Mane today underwent a procedure on a hand injury sustained while on international duty with Senegal.
“The surgery, conducted at a north-west hospital and supervised by club medics, was successful. Mane’s recovery will be monitored over the next couple of days ahead of the Reds’ return to action at Huddersfield Town on Saturday.”
IN his 1994 autobiography, Brian Clough addressed a personal dislike of Martin O’Neill’s capacity to be “a bit of a smart-a***”. It’s a description of the Republic of Ireland manager that was called into colour late on Tuesday evening through the oddly supercilious air deployed when briefing daily newspaper journalists after the Nations League defeat to Wales.
O’Neill seemed, at best, bored during an exchange lasting less than 10 minutes in a cramped corridor between the Aviva’s media auditorium and the dressing rooms.
The journalists present would, mostly, have been well known to him. Senior writers now seeking to explore the ramifications of the Republic’s likely Nations League relegation and the worrisome seeding implications for December’s European Championship draw.
Twice he responded to questions about the challenges ahead with a terse and ambiguous declaration, “I’ll win”.
Then, having prophesised that the Republic of Ireland would qualify for those Euro finals (of which the FAI are cohosts), he was asked to clarify if that’s what he actually meant. “Yes,” he replied. “You’re saying that now?” “Absolutely.”
“To the finals?”
“Of course.”
“What gives you that optimism?”
“Because I’m good.” Niall Quinn once described professional football as “a game of hyperbole and exaggeration”, and there’s no doubting the sense of circus that applies when the atmosphere begins to curdle around a high-profile team. Kindness becomes an early casualty, society easily offended by the failure of wealthy men to put in a compelling shift.
In the Republic’s case, the wealth issue centres not on the players (few enough of them having Premier League status) but on a manager whose annual salary comes to roughly two and a half times the combined incomes of the US President, British Prime Minister and German Chancellor. Anecdotally (all we really have to go on), his assistant Roy Keane gets paid close to twice what Ryan Giggs takes home for managing Wales.
And the two Steves, Guppy and Walford? Who knows.
Suffice to say that the management bill for a team that hasn’t now won a game of note in a calendar year may well exceed €3m annually.
Against that backdrop, accountability should be rigorously pursued and, so, O’Neill’s apparent flippancy on Tuesday night jarred with the circumstance.
He has done a reasonable job in his five years at the helm, the high arc being an impressive campaign at the Euro finals in France two summers ago and marquee wins against Germany in Dublin and Austria in Vienna.
But his shambolic half-time response to falling behind in that World Cup play-off against Denmark last November, one all but ridiculed subsequently by the opposition manager, created an impression of tactical flux that hasn’t since receded.
Towards the end of Tuesday night’s defeat to Wales, the Republic had no discernible plan or structure.
With three strikers on the field, two having played virtually no football this season, it was an exercise in rolling dice. With more composure, Wales would have repeated the humiliation of Cardiff last month — even without Gareth Bale or Aaron Ramsey in town.
Because this was schoolyard football; everybody just running random lines, hoping.
That was shocking, yet might have been easier to digest had O’Neill’s commitment to the Irish job not seemed so fragile last autumn that the glamour of Stoke City appeared to be turning his head. It seems that, had he been able to reach agreement on longevity of contract, he would have taken that job in The Potteries.
And now?
Even if anxiety levels are soaring within the FAI over a growing sense of disconnect with supporters, even if Tuesday night’s boos at the full-time whistle cast a chill on John Delaney’s birthday celebrations, what is there to be done with a management team contracted to the end of the 2020 campaign?
Just imagine the severance figures.