Paul Pogba went against Juventus’ wishes when he initially refused to have surgery in July, Pavel Nedved has revealed.
The Frenchman returned to the club on a free transfer in the summer but has yet to play a single minute of competitive football in his second spell at the Italian club. He tore a meniscus in his right knee during pre-season in July and has recently suffered a relapse that has ruled him until after the World Cup.
The midfielder initially chose not to have surgery, opting to undergo more conservative treatment instead, but ultimately had to go under the knife in September when such treatment didn’t work.
Juventus vice-president Nedved has now revealed that the club wanted him to have surgery as soon as he suffered the injury but weren’t able to convince him.
“We cannot force a player to undergo surgery, even if he is a dependent and we are paying him,” he told Sport Mediaset.
“He chose conservative therapy, it did not go well, then he had an operation and that didn’t entirely fix it either. We had hoped he’d be playing now, so did he.
“He was meant to come back November 5 and then play the World Cup. Perhaps he made the decision not to go to the World Cup a little late, but he remains a great person and great player.”
Pogba is one of many important players at Juventus this season to miss a number of matches through injury, with 11 unavailable against PSG. Nedved has admitted that the situation needs to be looked at and will be during the winter break.
“We’ve been battling with injuries since the start of the season, there are in total 12 or 13 injuries, so we need to ask ourselves some serious questions,” he added.
“Fortunately, the season takes a break on November 13 and we need to make evaluations on everything, then hope to start again on a different foot. I am not talking about the coach, club, players or anything specific, but something evidently went wrong.”
Credit: 90min.com
