Sadio Mane, the two-time African Player of the year, will not play at the 2022 World Cup due to an injury to his right fibula. No African side has ever made it past the quarter-final stage of the World Cup, but Cisse’s side will believe they can be the ones to make history for the second time this year even without their talisman.
The Senegalese Football Federation confirmed on Thursday that Sadio Mane will not be fit to play in the 2022 World Cup, and that the forward player has been withdrawn from the squad.
Having lost the race to recover from his injury, Mane becomes the first African Player of the Year to miss the World Cup since the award was conferred by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) in 1992.
He picked up a shin injury while playing for Bayern Munich against Werder Bremen earlier this month but still made the cut for Aliou Cisse’s World Cup squad in the hope he could regain fitness.
However, The Teranga Lions’ fears over his involvement in the tournament were realised when team doctor, Manuel Afonso took to Twitter, confirming that the former Liverpool player would miss out.
“Unfortunately, today’s (Thursday) MRI shows us that the improvement is not as favourable as we imagined and unfortunately, we have to withdraw Sadio from the World Cup,” Alfonso said in a video on the official Senegal Twitter account.
Losing Mane is undoubtably a hammer blow for Senegal, who are rated by many as the best African Side to ever go to the world cup. But the Teranga Lions have come a long way as a squad and will have to play for their injured star in addition to the millions of Africans who regard them as the continent’s best hope at this year’s tournament.
Mane has been Senegal’s talisman of late, playing a crucial role in securing their first-ever AFCON title in February, where he scored the winning penalty as the Teranga Lions beat Egypt in a penalty shootout in the final.
In October, he came second in the Ballon d’Or award (soccer’s highest individual prize) and became the first African to finish that high on the ranking since former professional footballer and current president of Liberia, George Weah won it in 1995.
Now, on course to play in their third World Cup finals, the West African nation will look to repeat their heroics from 2002 but will have to do so without one of their most prized assets.
But even without Bayen Munich star, Senegal remain a solid team, capable of going furthest amongst the five nations (Ghana, Cameroon, Morocco, and Tunisia) carrying Africa’s hopes for glory to Qatar.
Granted, their performances leading to the tournament have been less than convincing, but the overwhelming predictions that Senegal will be Africa’s best team at the world cup is not without merit.
Drawn in group A alongside host nation Qatar, Ecuador and the Netherlands, head coach Cisse will hope that the AFCON Champions will ride on experience and squad depth to make it a memorable campaign in the desert country.
The squad boasts undeniable quality from back to front, with the likes of Edouard Mendy, Kalidou Koulibaly, Idrissa Gueye and Ismaila Sarr all in the mix. No matter what formation Cisse goes with, what’s certain is that the team will not be short of striking options, even if inspiration and morale could be a bit diminished.
Sadio Mane remains their biggest brand, and a true symbol of how far the Teranga Lions have come as a national team. His untimely injury means the Teranga Lions’ chances of progressing far in the tournament are slim.
