Solskjaer reveals why Pogba is missing v WBA

During the pre-match press conference on Friday afternoon, the manager highlighted the Frenchman’s importance to the squad and revealed they had shared a conversation that morning about the player’s fitness, which had been aided by two international appearances in the break. 

However, when our line-up was announced on Saturday night, Pogba was surprisingly missing from the 18-man squad and Ole then told us that Paul had unfortunately aggravated an ankle injury, which he had picked up in France’s midweek UEFA Nations League match win over Sweden. 

“Paul got a knock in the last [France] game and he started feeling it yesterday after the session,” the manager explained to club reporter Stewart Gardner ahead of kick-off against West Brom. “Well, he felt it before the session, but he couldn’t carry on. Hopefully he’ll be okay for Tuesday.”

In Pogba’s absence, Solskjaer started the match with Fred and Nemanja Matic in the centre of the park, also naming fellow midfielders Scott McTominay and Donny van de Beek on the bench.

As the manager explained ahead of kick-off, he hopes that Paul will be fit enough to feature in Tuesday’s UEFA Champions League Group H match against Istanbul Basaksehir at Old Trafford. 

That European game under the floodlights is crucial to our hopes of reaching the knockout stages, having suffered a defeat to the Turkish champions on matchday three of the competition.