Senegal’s Teranga Lions landed in Doha yesterday for the FIFA World Cup without their ever dependable Sadio Mane who is nursing injuries from a Bundesliga game for Bayern Munich against Werder Bremen last Tuesday.
Coach Aliou Cisse could not afford to drop Mane from the party despite his injuries when naming his final 26-man squad on Monday.
The 30-year-old forward was forced off in the first half of Bayern Munich’s 6-1 crushing of Bremen.
The German champions said he had an injury “to the head of his right fibula” and missed Saturday’s game against Schalke.
Senegal are to begin their Group A campaign against the Netherlands on 21 November.
“We are monitoring the situation and we sent a doctor from the federation,” Senegal coach Aliou Cisse said at a press conference in the Senegalese capital Dakar at the weekend.
“On Thursday, Sadio spent the whole day in Munich before travelling to Austria for further tests. The good news is that he does not need an operation.
“It is important to continue to monitor his injury and hope that in two or three weeks there is a change. We will give everything to have Sadio back.”
Former Liverpool player Mane is Senegal’s star player and talisman, having scored the winning penalty when the Teranga Lions became continental championsfor the first time in February, defeating Egypt in a shoot-out in the Africa Cup of Nations final.
Less than two months later, Mane repeated the feat, netting the decisive spot-kick as Senegal beat Egypt – in a clash that again pitted him against then Liverpool team-mate Mohammed Salah – on penalties in a crunch play-off to qualify for Qatar.
As his country’s record goalscorer, with 34 goals in 93 caps, Mane’s fitness is key to Senegal’s chances and Cisse will be sweating on his availability ahead of their opener against the Dutch, with matches against hosts Qatar (25 November) and Ecuador (29 November) to follow.
