Despite the extreme optimism in Senegal that Sadio Mane could play the World Cup in Qatar 2022, the player from Bayern Monaco he was unable to recover from the injury sustained on 8 November in a Bundesliga match against Werder Bremen.

At first the decision had been to include him in the list of 26 called up. Admittedly, the 30-year-old striker is Africa’s best player today and the country’s greatest figure of him.

From that side it seemed logical to bet a miraculous healing and that he can play at least one of the group stage matches.

“I preferred to include him in the group. Sadio Mané is an important player in our group, It’s important to keep monitoring your injury, waiting for it to evolve in two to three weeks. But we are really optimistic,” explained Aliou Cissé, coach of the Senegalese team a few days ago.

However, the optimism seems to have faded and Mané was disappointed three days into the World Cup.

“The Senegalese Football Federation wishes its player, Sadio Mané, a speedy recovery,” published the official team report.

The team doctor said: “Unfortunately Thursday’s magnetic resonance shows us that the evolution is not as favorable as we imagined and unfortunately we have decided to declare Sadio out for the World Cup.”

Apart from the fact that the main loser is Senegal for having lost its best player, the absence of the former Liverpool player will be painful for all football fans who will not be able to see one of today’s big stars.

What has not yet been announced is who will replace Mané, but what is known is that the player who will take his place will also assume the responsibility of wearing the emblematic number 10 that the forward would have used in his participation in the World Cup.

dd