MANCHESTER United interim manager Ralf Rangnick has given an update on Paul Pogba’s injury and the midfielder’s return to first-team training.
Pogba has been injured since November and is yet to play under the German during his tenure at Old Trafford.
Rangnick revealed that the Frenchman is still around a month away from being able to progress from individual work to train with his team-mates again.
“As far as I know, I was told a week ago, it would be a minimum of at least another four or five weeks before he is fit for training again,” Rangnick told Manchester United’s official website on Saturday.
“I saw him this morning before the training session, he was in the locker room, and I hope he will be back as soon as possible.”
Pogba could be out for over three months by the time he is ready to play again and Rangnick is asking for patience and not setting an exact return date.
“Right now, he’s not been part of the training group and, even if he was back whenever, two, three or four weeks, it will take some time,” the 63-year-old German said.
“It’s one thing to be training fit but, on the other hand, he needs to be fit for the match and competition in either the Premier League or the Champions League and this will still take some time.”
Pogba will definitely miss the FA Cup third round clash against Aston Villa on Monday, but Rangnick expects his players to rise up to the occasion.
Manchester United were outclassed in their last match as Wolves handed them a first defeat under Rangnick, and the manager says there must not be a repeat on Monday.
“Yes, we have some made progress, but obviously the game against Wolves was again a step back,” he noted.
“It was maybe even a relapse to habits that the team had shown in the past and therefore we need to insist, emphasise every time, that we have to work together. “We can only get better in those moments, in possession of the ball, [when it is] in possession of the other team, and in the two transitional moments, together.
“We have to do the same things at the same time, we have to do it simultaneously and of course we also have to do it with passion, emotion and intensity and this was the problem against Wolves, especially in the first half.
“We were only escorting them. If we look at it really, it was only David De Gea who objected them to going easily to our goal. David was the one who kept us in the game in the first half. In the second half, it was better, when we changed formation to a back three.
“But again, it’s about finding a sustainable balance for the future and this can only be done together.”
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