Sadly on the eve of every World Cup we get news about injuries from top players whom we hoped could’ve been stars at the tournament. Marco Reus is once again injured prior to a World Cup so the German will seemingly never be able to experience the tournament with Germany. In 2018, Mo Salah came into the tournament with a serious injury sustained in the Champions League final after being driven to the ground by Sergio Ramos. He made the Egypt roster, but was virtually ineffective in the tournament.
His former Liverpool teammate Sadio Mané is going through a similar situation heading into the Qatar tournament. What’s seemingly more frustrating in Mane’s case is that his injury was not sustained in a Champions League final, but a regular Bundesliga game that could’ve easily been played after the World Cup. Just like Salah, Mane is going to be traveling to Qatar with Senegal in spite of the fact that around the time of his injury it was speculated he wouldn’t be able to make it back in time for the tournament.
The Witch Doctor Who Will Try & Help Mane Play In The World Cup
Bayern Munich described the injury sustained by Mane as an issue on the “head of the fibula”. As previously stated it was widely reported that this type of injury would require a 4 to 6 week recovery period. However, Bayern Munich manager Julian Nagelsmann acknowledged in an interview that Senegal would do everything in their power to ensure that Mane would be ready to play in the World Cup. The Senegalese football federation upon hearing of the injury mentioned that they would be sending a doctor to Munich to check on Mane.
This is where things start to get weird. Word came through that the Senegalese federation would be considering having Mane get treatment from a local “witch doctor” in Senegal. As far as we know Mane did not make a trip to Senegal to be treated by any type of sorcerer or whatever it may be. Witch doctor or not Mane made the final roster and is expected to be with the team in Qatar.
How Effective Can We Expect Sadio Mané To Be In The World Cup?
The Bayern Munich official injury report that came out when Sadio Mane sustained this injury in question painted quite a gloomy picture for Mane’s World Cup hopes. There’s a chance that Bayern exaggerated the injury to potentially keep the player and not let him attend the World Cup. This wouldn’t be the first time that we see something like this. In fact, Canada’s Alphonso Davies is in a similar position. In any case expecting Mane to start and be an important fixture for Senegal looks to be rather unrealistic.
Senegal will begin its World Cup journey next Monday against the Netherlands. If we see Mane on the field we may be willing to do a little more digging to find out who was the doctor that he saw to be able to get back on the field so quickly. Still, we don’t expect Mane to be in the starting 11 against the Netherlands. Mane is known for being a highly explosive player that can get behind any defense on any through ball. That type of explosiveness though makes it harder for him to be able to recover from an injury like this so quickly. Ultimately we don’t really expect Sadio Mané to be able to make a considerable impact on the game. Maybe it’s a good idea for Senegal to rest Mane, particularly in this game that they may have as an L on their budget already!
