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‘Frustrated’ Pogba explains his lengthy injury absence

There’s been plenty of talk about Paul Pogba and his prolonged absence from the Manchester United side, but the midfielder has explained exactly why he’s been out for so long.

The £89 million man had played every minute Manchester United‘s first four league games of the season before being sidelined for almost a month, returning in late September for games against Rochdale and Arsenal before going off injured again.

Surgery to correct a long standing problem with his foot kept him out of action until December, the 27-year-old returning to action in the festive fixtures against Watford and Newcastle before again succumbing to injury, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer being forced to defend his star player after he insisted on getting a second opinion on the injury.

That second opinion saw the midfielder go under the knife once more, leading to some suggesting he may never play for the club again, with rumours persisting about his desire to move to Real Madrid or Juventus, speculation not helped by comments from his agent, Mino Raiola.

However, with football currently in a hiatus due to the COVID-19 crisis, the France international has explained exactly what went on with his series of injuries, admitting he is close to making his latest return.

“I’m already training and touching the ball,” Pogba told the United podcast.

“I’ve been frustrated, a long time ago. Now I’m almost there, so I’m just thinking about getting back and training fully with the team and everything. You think bad but I’ve never had something like this in my career, so I always take it in a good way. It makes me more hungry to come back and do well. And, yeah, it just shows me as well how much I love football.

“You have to be very patient because, well my injury, I don’t know if people really know what happened. So I had a foot injury, which came in the game against Southampton. It was early this season and so I carried this for a long time, training and trying to be playing with it. After I stopped, I found I had a fracture.

“I had a cast on it, a plaster-cast, so it went very well but too well. The bone got bigger and so, when I came back again, I played those two games against Watford and Newcastle, I could feel something again. So I had to have an operation and now here I am. I don’t feel anything and, hopefully, I’ll be back very soon.”

Prior to football’s suspension, United were just three points behind fourth-placed Chelsea, and on a fine run of form; unbeaten in 11 games in all competitions, scoring 29 and conceding just twice during that period.

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