Senegal forward Sadio Mané will miss the upcoming World Cup with a tendon injury sustained while playing for Bayern Munich, French sports paper L’Equipe has reported.
The report said the injury would see Mané sidelined for several weeks and make him miss the November 20-December tournament in Qatar, where African champions Senegal play the Netherlands, hosts Qatar and Ecuador in the group stage.
African Footballer of the Year Mané went off in the 20th minute of Bayern’s 6-1 Bundesliga win against Bremen the previous day.
Bayern has so far released no injury update on the 30-year-old.
Coach Julian Nagelsmann spoke of “a blow to his tibial plateau” shortly after the game and said Mané would “have to have an X-ray to see what’s happened”.
Other several high-profile players have already been forced to pull out of the ill-timed tournament with injury, including French stars Paul Pogba and N’Golo Kante, Portugal’s Diogo Jota, Argentina’s Pablo Dybala and Netherlands’ Georginio Wijnaldum.
Elsewhere, Japan midfielder Wataru Endo was carried off on a stretcher after being knocked unconscious during VfB Stuttgart’s 2-1 home win over Hertha Berlin.
“Wataru Endo was unconscious on the field but was responsive again in the ambulance,” Stuttgart wrote on Twitter.
The 29-year-old defensive midfielder has 43 caps and was last week named in Japan’s World Cup squad.
-with DPA
