Reports: Paul Pogba to miss up to a month due to latest injury setback

Paul Pogba’s face as he left J Medical on Monday morning truly said it all.

The news was not good — and he knew it. And it was just another development in a season of complete frustration for a player who was expected to do big things in his comeback to Juventus.

Juventus announced shortly after Pogba departed the club’s medical facilities that the Frenchman has indeed suffered another muscle injury in the aftermath of his knee surgery that kept him out of the World Cup and the entirety of the first half of the 2022-23 season. Juve said that Pogba suffered “a low-grade tear to his right thigh adductor” — which happened as he took free kicks in training Sunday morning, according to Goal Italia’s Romeo Agresti — and that “he has already started with the rehabilitation process aimed at resuming competitive activity.”

According to reports for Sky Italia’s Gianluca Di Marzio and Tuttosport, Pogba’s latest injury could keep out for up to a month — which, considering how things are going for his season, is a pretty rough guess. While there is very much an international break beginning next week and will take up half of that potential monthlong absence, the fact that it’s the latest injury in what has become a lengthy list of them is the most discouraging thing.

Pogba appeared to be turning a corner with his injury issues when he made his second official Juventus debut during the Derby della Mole against Torino on the final day of February. It was a short, 20-minute cameo, but it was supposed to be the signal to all of us that Pogba was finally available and ready to contribute in some sort of way as he ramped up his match fitness.

Pogba made another substitute appearance four days later in Juve’s loss to Roma, with Max Allegri saying that the Frenchman was showing signs of slowly getting back to being able to play more minutes.

And then Sunday morning happened, giving us another chance to simply just shake our heads at what has become one of the more disappointing — and surely frustrating from both Pogba’s and the fans’ end — seasons from a big Juventus signing.

This is Pogba’s third different muscle injury since he tried to return to partial training after undergoing knee surgery. And that, of course, comes after his initial conservative therapy route didn’t work out at all as he tried to make a comeback in time for the World Cup.

In total, Pogba has missed nearly 40 games this season.