Sadio Mane will miss the World Cup, Senegal announces

Mane was initially called up despite suffering an injury in Bayern's Bundesliga match against Werder Bremen. Coach Aliou Cissé and his team expected he would miss the first match or two and then play in the latter stages of the tournament. Those hopes were crushed on Thursday evening.

The Senegalese medical team explained at a press conference that Mané will have to undergo surgery to treat the problem in the fibula of his right leg.

"Since the injury occurred on 8 November, we contacted Bayern Munich to get the first information. The very next day, the club sent us the first images of the MRI that he had undergone, which showed an injury to his right knee (...). It was concluded to do another MRI today (Thursday) to check the progress and if it was possible for Sadio Mane to hold his place for this World Cup. Unfortunately, the MRI shows that the progress is not as favourable as we had imagined and we have to declare Sadio's withdrawal from the World Cup. A surgical operation should be scheduled very soon," the head of the medical staff said.

After appearing at the World Cup 2018 in Russia, Sadio Mané was preparing to take part in the second World Cup of his career, and Senegal fans pinned their hopes for a successful campaign in Qatar on him. He is a team captain and he scored the decisive penalty in the second leg of the World Cup play-off against Egypt. However at the tournament itself, they will have to play without him.