Sadio Mane will miss the World Cup after undergoing surgery for a knee injury he sustained while playing for Bayern Munich.
Senegal’s football association announced on Tuesday that Mane, 30, would miss their “first games” in the competition.
However, a further MRI scan performed on Thursday revealed the need for surgical intervention.
On November 8, Mane was taken off during Bayern’s Bundesliga victory over Werder Bremen.
The player “underwent successful surgery” on Thursday to attach a tendon to the head of his right fibula, according to Bayern.
The club stated, “The forward will start his recovery in Munich in the coming days.”
On Monday, Senegal’s World Cup campaign gets underway against the Netherlands. The West African team is in Group A and will play hosts Qatar on November 25 and Ecuador on November 29.
Senegal’s talisman is Mane, a two-time African Footballer of the Year, who netted the deciding penalty in February when the Teranga Lions won the Africa Cup of Nations after outlasting Egypt in a shootout.
Senegal will now find it incredibly challenging to leave a mark in Qatar without their talisman. Edouard Mendy, Kalidou Koulibaly, and Ismaila Sarr are among their other top players, but Mane is their motivation and game-changer. Sad news for Mane and Senegal as a whole.