Paul Pogba has not played for 315 days - now he finally makes his Juventus debut
Carlo Garganese
- 28 Feb 2023 02:25 CST
- 3 min read
Paul Pogba is set to finally make his Juventus debut, 315 days after he last played an official game of football.
Juventus manager Max Allegri confirmed that Pogba has been called up for Tuesday’s Turin Derby against Torino.
Pogba is expected to start from the bench and come on as a substitute late in the second half.
READ MORE: Pogba, Balotelli and the biggest wasted talents of all time
“He’s better, he’ll be called up,” Allegri said in Monday’s pre-match press conference.
“If there’s a need, we’ll put him on, he certainly won’t be able to play a lot of minutes.”
Pogba’s injury hell
Pogba has not kicked a football this season since his free transfer move back to Juventus from Manchester United last summer.
In September, the 29-year-old underwent surgery for a torn meniscus that he suffered during the summer and which had not responded to conservative treatment.
He tried to recover in time for the World Cup with France but then suffered a thigh injury prior to the finals.
Pogba then suffered a number of setbacks in December and the start of January before slowly working his way back to fitness.
He was set to return at the start of February in the Coppa Italia clash against Lazio, having sat on the bench a few days earlier in the defeat to Monza.
However, Pogba picked up another injury in training before the Lazio game. This ruled him out for almost another month.
He is set to finally play against Torino.
How many injuries has Pogba had?
From the start of the 2019-20 season until now, Pogba has sustained 11 different injuries that have kept him sidelined.
Related articles
In total he has missed a whopping 123 club games due to injury or illness during that time. The number rises to almost 150 when we include national team matches.
In the 2019-20 season, Pogba made just 16 Premier League appearances after two separate ankle problems forced him to miss 40 games in all competitions that campaign.
In 2021-22, Pogba had another long stretch on the treatment table from November to February due to a hamstring injury. He then saw his Man Utd career ended in April by a calf injury.
Since returning to Turin, Pogba has not played a single competitive match. He featured for 45 minutes in a pre-season friendly against Guadalajara before injuring his meniscus in training the very next day in the United States.
He has not played competitively since April 19, 2022, a 4-0 thrashing for Man Utd by Liverpool. That was 315 days ago.
