Sunday Poll: How many games will Paul Pogba start in Serie A this season?

We dealt with Paul Pogba and the slow build-up in conditioning during the summer. That resulted in minutes restrictions to begin the season because he simply wasn’t ready physically to play from the opening whistle in Juve’s first set of games before the international break. And now, as we sit here in the middle of said international break, we’re wondering just what kind of potential setback is in the cards after the latest injury scare.

Then again, we’re always in that kind of mind set with Pogba these days.

The reality when it comes to Pogba’s second stint at Juventus is that it has been dominated by the first big injury, the decision on how to treat it and then the subsequent time he missed because of how things went. The injuries that have followed have only added to the frustration and the shrinking optimism that he can be a player Juve can build their midfield around.

We don’t know how much time, if any, Pogba could miss because of the muscle issue he reported during his second-half appearance off the bench against Empoli last weekend. But after a summer in which he didn’t appear in any friendlies because of fitness concerns, the simple fact that it’s taken less than 100 minutes of game time for another potential issue to force him to miss some sort of time coming out of the international break.

The hope was that he could build his fitness levels to the point where he could bring some desperately needed game-changing ability to Juventus’ midfield. But now? Who knows.

That’s why we ask the question ...