Reports: Paul Pogba opts against surgery for his meniscus injury

The waiting game for which direction Paul Pogba will go with his injured knee has reached its final answer.

But if this is the end of his knee troubles still remains to be seen.

According to just about every major sports news outlet in Italy, Pogba has come to the decision as to how he will deal with the meniscus injury he picked up the day after Juve’s first friendly during its United States tour. And if you were hoping it might be a decision that will see the problem resolved once and for all with a lengthy time period on the sidelines, that’s not what you’re going to get. All outlets are reporting Pogba has opted to go with the conservative therapy option, which will see him miss five weeks and put him on track to return to Juventus’ lineup come the second week of September, potentially as early as the Bianconeri’s Sept. 11 fixture against Salernintana.

Pogba was also weighing surgery options that would have kept him out for two months or, in the most dramatic yet maybe most definitive choice, into the new year, which would cause him to miss France’s World Cup title defense later this year in Qatar.

One could argue that this could very still put his World Cup at risk because it could just be a short-term fix for a potentially long-term problem. And maybe if the World Cup had been played in the summer rather than in the middle of the club season then Pogba’s decision making process would have gone differently.

But, we’re not in Pogba’s head. We don’t know what kind of back and forth there was between Juventus’ doctors, the doctors Pogba saw, France’s medical team and Team Pogba.

Heck, seeing as Juventus has been rather mum on Pogba’s injury, we’re still not exactly sure on the extent of the injury on an official level.

But from the reporting Tuesday, we know that this choice of treatment entails is three or so weeks of therapy in the pool and then another two weeks with on-field rehab. If all goes well — and, knowing that this is the kind of player that Juve desperately needs in their midfield ASAP — then seeing Pogba on the field in a five weeks time is now in the realm of possibilities. That might not be something we thought was possible a few days ago with how the reporting was leaning, but the consensus seems pretty clear from the Italian media now — Pogba is going to be back on the field in September if everything goes according to plan.

And let’s hope all of this goes according to plan over these next few months when it comes to Pogba’s health.