Juventus coach Max Allegri confirmed that Paul Pogba is unlikely to feature for the club during their USA tour: ‘He’s practically never trained with the team.’ The Bianconeri are in the States for a series of pre-season matches, but their first match against Barcelona has already been called off after the Blaugrana squad came down with a stomach virus. Speaking with TuttoSport, Allegri offered an update on the squads condition and preparation for the new campaign, confirming Pogba’s status:
“We start again with the whole group available, we have some physical problems which is normal at the beginning of the season. Then we have the whole month of August to fix the team, if we have to fix it, otherwise we are full as it is. With a team that, let’s remember, last year finished third in the league. So we have to try to start again in the best way possible. Now in the meantime we need to know whether we will play the Conference League or not, then from there we will evaluate together with the club, together with the director because if we will play in Europe we will have to make one type of squad, if on the other hand we will not play the Cups then we will have to build another one.”
“Pogba? Not having had a player like Pogba available was definitely a penalty for the team, for everyone, last season. Unfortunately, momentarily he is doing differentiated work to try to recover as soon as possible, but now we don’t know when it is that he will be able to return to training with the rest of the team.
“The others are early season aches and pains. I don’t think I can use Paul in the touring games. He has practically never trained with the group, he is doing differentiated training: he is progressing well, but even last year there were times when he was progressing well and then stopped. Seeing him run he looks a little better to me, however from here to playing there is a long way. We have to wait at least a month to see if he will be available to the team.”
