Sadio Mane included in Senegal World Cup squad despite injury concerns
By Tom Gott
Bayern Munich forward Sadio Mane has been included in Senegal's final squad for the World Cup despite fears that he will be unavailable to play through injury.
The forward was forced off last weekend with what Bayern described as a knock initially, but reports soon suggested that Mane had suffered a tendon injury which, given the timing of the World Cup, would rule him out of the tournament altogether.
Nevertheless, Senegal manager Aliou Cisse has opted to include Mane in his final squad for the tournament.
"We're keeping an eye on him," Cisse explained. "We sent the doctor from the Senegalese football federation yesterday, he spent the day in Munich to see the situation.
"The good news is that he does not need surgery. It is a very, very good thing. Next week, we will meet with Sadio Mane, after a week or ten days of his injury, then we will do another MRI to see how his injury have developed.
"I kept him on the list as we did with Ismaila Sarr. It is important to keep an eye on his injury, and we hope that in two or three weeks, there will be progress. We are optimistic and we will do everything we can to help Sadio Mane recover."
FIFA's secretary general, Senegal native Fatma Samoura, recently confessed the country were going to do everything possible to keep Mane healthy for the tournament, even claiming they would use the services of a witch doctor.
"We are going to use witch doctors," she told Europe 1. "I don't know [if they're effective] but in this instance, we're going to use them anyway. We are hoping for miracles. He has to be there!"