Paul Pogba will miss Manchester United’s friendly against AC Milan due to a ‘back spasm’, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has revealed.
The France international suffered an identical injury earlier this week which forced him to miss the final training session ahead of the 1-0 win over Kristiansund.
Pogba was able to play the final 30 minutes of a match which was decided by Juan Mata’s injury time penalty but has suffered a recurrence, according to his manager.
‘At the end of the session today, Paul got a back spasm, the same issue he had last week, when he missed the session in Norway,’ confirmed Solskjaer.
‘But I think he’ll be available early next week.’
The 26-year-old publicly stated his desire to quit United just three years after his return from Juventus while his agent, Mino Raiola, claimed he was in the process of engineering Pogba’s exit strategy.
Despite the ongoing speculation surrounding his future, Pogba has played a prominent role in United’s pre-season campaign with Solskjaer understood to be giving consideration to restoring his star midfielder to the role of vice-captain after he lost that honour following a training ground bust-up with Jose Mourinho.
Solskjaer, meanwhile, will be without four further senior first team players with Romelu Lukaku still unavailable for selection given his imminent move to Serie A.
Alexis Sanchez returned to training this week but he, along with Matteo Darmian and Joel Pereira, will not feature on Saturday.
‘We have a few players back at the Aon Training Complex,’ Solskjaer added..
‘Joel Pereira tweaked his back last week so he’s back there training. Romelu and Alexis are working on their fitness with Matteo Darmian. Eric, obviously is injured and out until Christmas time.
‘At the end of the session today, Paul got a back spasm, the same issue he had last week, when he missed the session in Norway. But I think he’ll be available early next week.’
