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The original was posted on /r/soccer by /u/Sparky-moon on 2026-01-14 14:26:21+00:00.
Nothing is going as planned between AS Monaco and Paul Pogba.
He was supposed to increase his playing time between October and December.
Everyone at AS Monaco knew it was a difficult challenge, but hopes of seeing Paul Pogba (32) play consistently at the highest level, rather than just a few minutes here and there, are fading with each setback. And there have been many. On December 13, on the eve of his team’s defeat in Marseille (1-0), Pogba injured his left calf in training, forcing him to miss ASM’s last four games and the next one on Friday against Lorient.
This calf injury is already his third this season. Before that, he had muscle problems in his thigh in October. Then he sprained his ankle on October 31 during training after a minor collision with a teammate, delaying his return to competition.
Instead of returning on November 1 against Paris FC (0-1), two years after his last match with Juventus Turin, he finally played five minutes at the end of the match against Stade Rennais three weeks later (1-4, on November 22), in a standing Roazhon Park.
Only half an hour of cumulative playing time with AS Monaco
All in all, adding four minutes against Paris SG (1-0) and 21 in Brest (0-1), Pogba has spent half an hour on the pitch with ASM this season, which is a long way from the playing time that he and his club had set themselves.
Ideally and initially, Pogba should have played increasingly longer stretches of games from October to December, made his first starts at the end of 2025, and built up his strength during January and February to become a weapon in the spring. And when he dreamed of the 2026 World Cup with Les Bleus, the French international (91 caps, 11 goals) imagined himself returning to his best form around April, when the season is decided.