Paul Pogba to miss rest of season with another injury

Paul Pogba made his first start in Serie A this season at the weekend, but he departed after only 24 minutes because of a thigh injury. This is the third separate injury Pogba picked up in this campaign.

In the fall of 2022, Pogba underwent surgery on his meniscus. Since then, he has only made 10 appearances in all competitions. In total, he played 161 minutes. Part of that is due to missing games for reasons outside of the knee injury. For example, Pogba missed time for disciplinary reasons as he was tardy for a meeting. Also, Pogba missed a month with an abductor injury. In addition to missing out on time with Juventus, Pogba did not feature in the France World Cup squad in its title defense.

Now, it appears unlikely the Frenchman will feature for Juventus again this season. The club’s 2-0 win put the Old Lady on the brink of securing Champions League play for next season. However, Juventus has a trip to Sevilla coming up this week in the Europa League semifinals. That tie is level going into the second leg, after Pogba assisted Juventus’s goal in the seventh minute of stoppage time.

In the next game, he went down with an injury and had his head in his hands after just over 20 minutes.

Pogba injury crisis costing Juventus

That assist is Pogba’s only goal contribution this season. He returned to Turin with heavy expectations, even if it was for free after his contract at Manchester United expired. Yet, Juventus is paying Pogba handsomely. His wages rank fifth on Juventus’s team sheet. The four above him are Dusan Vlahovic, Wojciech Szczesny, Leonardo Bonucci and Alex Sandro, all of whom have more appearances.

Having played so few minutes, Juventus is bleeding money for Pogba. The club has paid the player roughly $65,000 per minute he has played this season. Of course, that does assume his injury rules him out for the rest of the campaign.

PHOTO: IMAGO / Marco Canoniero