Injured Mané in Senegal’s squad
SADIO MANÉ was included in Senegal’s World Cup squad yesterday as coach Aliou Cissé gambled on one of the world’s best forwards being fit and ready in time after injuring his lower right leg this week playing for Bayern Munich.
Cissé said Senegal’s medical team hoped that Mané would need about a week to recover from the injury he sustained on Tuesday in a league game in Germany and therefore be ready for Senegal’s opening game at the World Cup against the Netherlands on November 21, on paper the strongest team Senegal will face in Group A in Qatar.
But Cissé also raised the possibility that Mané may not be fit in time for the tournament, which would dash the hopes of a nation that has come to rely on Mané delivering at big moments.
“Sadio Mané is a key player in our group. We will do all we can to have Sadio Mané (available),” Cissé said at the Senegal squad announcement in Dakar that was dominated by whether Mané would be in or out.
Cissé said Senegal had sent their team doctor to Munich to examine Mané’s injury and the “good news” was that he did not require surgery. The initial diagnosis was that Mané would be out for around a week, Cissé said.
But Bayern coach Julian Nagelsmann sounded a more pessimistic note later Friday.
“In general, an early return from an injury is always risky,” said Nagelsmann, who suggested Mané needs more than a week.
Mané is the focus of a Senegal team which won their first African Cup of Nations title this year and is rated by many as the best African side to ever go to a World Cup. It has realistic hopes of making the quarterfinals and may be Africa’s best chance yet of having a team reach the last four at a World Cup for the first time.
The 30-year-old Mané has been vital for Senegal, scoring the penalty that won the African Cup title in a shootout against Egypt in February. A month later, he also netted the winning penalty in another shootout that clinched Senegal a place at the World Cup in Qatar in a playoff, again beating Egypt. He recently became his country’s all-time leading scorer and finished second in this year’s Ballon d’or behind Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema.
SENEGAL:
Goalkeepers: Seny Dieng (Queens Park Rangers), Alfred Gomis (Rennes), Édouard Mendy (Chelsea)
Defenders: Pape Abou Cissé (Olympiacos), Abdou Diallo (Leipzig), Ismail Jakobs (Monaco), Kalidou Koulibaly (Chelsea), Formose Mendy (Amiens), Youssouf Sabaly (Real Betis), Fodé Ballotouré (AC Milan)
Midfielders: Pathé Ciss (Rayo Vallecano), Krepin Diatta (Monaco), Idrissa Gueye (Everton), Pape Gueye (Marseille), Cheikhou Kouyaté (Nottingham Forest), Mamadou Loum (Reading), Nampalys Mendy (Leicester), Moustapha Name (Pafos), Pape Matar Sarr (Tottenham)
Forwards: Boulaye Dia (Salernitana), Bamba Dieng (Marseille), Nicolas Jackson (Villarreal), Sadio Mané (Bayern Munich), Iliman Ndiaye (Sheffield United), Ismaila Sarr (Watford), Famara Diedhiou (Alanyaspor)