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LONDON. — Senegal forward Sadio Mane has undergone surgery on a knee injury he sustained playing for Bayern Munich and will miss the World Cup.
The Senegal FA have confirmed that the ex-Liverpool winger (30) has been ruled out of the global football showpiece which gets underway tomorrow in Qatar.
On Tuesday, Senegal’s football federation said Mane (30) would miss their “first games” at the tournament.
But a further MRI scan was completed on Thursday that showed surgical intervention was needed.
Mane was forced off during Bayern’s Bundesliga win over Werder Bremen on November 8. Bayern have confirmed the player “underwent successful surgery” on Thursday, to attach a tendon to the head of his right fibula
“The forward will begin his rehab in Munich in the next few days,” the club added. Mane suffered an injury to his right fibula in Bayern Munich’s penultimate game before the break.
Senegal team doctor Manuel Afonso announced: “Unfortunately, today’s MRI scan shows us that the evolution of the injury is not as positive as we had hoped and we, unfortunately, have to declare Sadio’s withdrawal from the World Cup.”
Despite optimistically handing him a place in the Qatar-bound squad, Mane has now been ruled out of the whole showcase.
The forward required surgery, which went smoothly on Thursday evening.
Bayern Munich confirmed that a “tendon was reattached to the head of his right fibula”. He will stay in Germany to begin rehab. The former English Premier League attacker is Senegal’s star player and will be a big miss for the African side in Qatar.
The rest of the squad have bizarrely been told “not to whine” about the absence of their talisman.
Most of Senegal’s squad arrived in the Middle East on Sunday without Mane.
Chelsea duo Edouard Mendy and Kalidou Koulibaly will hope to still qualify from a weak group that contains the host nation Qatar.
Ecuador and the Netherlands are tougher battles, especially without Mane.
Senegal start their World Cup campaign against the Netherlands on Monday. The West Africans are in Group A with games against hosts Qatar (November 25) and Ecuador (November 29) to follow.
Senegal football federation chief Augustin Senghor told AFP Thursday there was no panic over the loss and said the player’s health had been paramount in their decision. “We have been ready for this since the news of his injury,” Senghor said.
“We had been waiting for new test results and when they came in we all agreed his health had to come first.”
When asked how the team had taken the blow Senghor replied: “Zen”.
But Senegal international Pape Gueye told AFP that Mane would be missed.
“Mane is irreplacable,” he said.
“But we do have other options on the flank, and that’s a ray of hope on a dark day for Senegal.”
After naming Mane in his World Cup squad a week ago, coach Aliou Cisse was optimistic but cautious.
“Losing Sadio Mane is not an easy thing for a coach, for the team, even for African football,” he said.
Mane had been in Munich receiving treatment with his club.
Two-time African Footballer of the Year Mane is Senegal’s talisman, having scored the winning penalty when the Teranga Lions became continental champions for the first time in February, defeating Egypt in a shootout in the Africa Cup of Nations final.
Within two months Mane had repeated the feat, netting the decisive spot-kick as Senegal beat Egypt – in a game that again pitted him against then Liverpool team-mate Mohamed Salah – on penalties in a play-off to qualify for Qatar.
This will be heartbreaking for Mane after a year when everything was going like a dream for him at international level.
His performances in helping Senegal win the Cup of Nations and qualify for the World Cup, combined with his displays in the first half of the year with Liverpool, helped the Bayern Munich forward to be voted in second place for the Ballon d’Or award.
Only an inspired Karim Benzema stopped him becoming the first African player since George Weah to win that accolade. But the best was yet to come; Mane was hoping to help Senegal to emulate the nation’s class of 2002 and make it to at least the quarter-finals in Qatar.
Now, without their talisman, it’s going to be extremely difficult for Senegal to make an impression here in Qatar. They have other quality players such as Edouard Mendy, Kalidou Koulibaly and Ismaila Sarr but Mane is their inspiration and game-changer. A sad moment for Mane and for the whole of Senegal. — BBC Sport.
Online Reporter