PAUL POGBA has finally made his second Juventus debut… 315 days after his last competitive match.
The Frenchman ended his time at Manchester United by picking up a calf injury during a 4-0 loss to Liverpool last April.
He subsequently rejoined Juve, the side the Red Devils paid £89million for his services back in 2016, on a free transfer.
Ahead of his second debut for the Old Lady, however, he suffered a devastating knee injury.
Pogba, 29, was forced to undergo surgery on his right knee last September, ruling him out of France’s World Cup defence in the process.
During his layoff Juve were eliminated from the Champions League, before being slapped with a 15-point deduction in Serie A for a transfer scam.
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He tentatively returned to training last month and was even named on Juve’s 11-man bench for their 2-0 defeat to Monza on January 29, just to warm up with his new team-mates.
Pogba has now finally returned to full fitness, and was thrust into tonight’s Turin derby against Torino.
He replaced Enzo Barrenechea on 69 minutes with the score level at 2-2.
And his introduction appeared to do the trick, with Gleison Bremer putting Juve 3-2 up just two minutes later, before Adrien Rabiot made it 4-2 with 80 on the clock.
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Ahead of the match, boss Massimiliano Allegri said of his No10: “He’s better, he’ll be called up tomorrow.
“If there’s a need tomorrow, we’ll put him on, he certainly won’t be able to play a lot of minutes.”
He then added: “Now, to say that Pogba can be a starter for Juventus after 315 days without playing, (Federico) Chiesa, who has been out for 10 months, is the same thing. We need a bit of patience.”
On what he expects from Pogba, he continued: “I spoke to him like I do with other players.
“He has to understand that it’s an important part of the season to get back on track, he has to have all the motivation to do good until the end of the season and give us a hand.”
Juve went into tonight’s match eighth in Serie A – 13 points off the top four due to their deduction.
They will soon be back in European action too, being drawn to face SC Freiburg in the Europa League round of 16 after defeating Nantes in the play-off.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
