Sadio Mane has not played a match of football since November 8th of last year, which was Bayern Munich’s 6-1 win over Werder Bremen in the Bundesliga at the Allianz Arena, just a few short weeks before the World Cup in Qatar. He was subbed off in the first half with a fibula injury that inevitably caused him to miss out of Senegal’s World Cup run to the round of 16, where they were eventually beaten 3-0 by England. With Mane’s presence in the squad, their fortunes could’ve been far different, but switching gears back to Bayern, there is now an estimated time table for his return to the pitch.
Mane is expected to return to action in the beginning of February. This means there is a strong possibility he could be fit in time to face Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League round of 16 legs. They speculate that he would resume full team training at the beginning of next month, so it’s foreseeable that he would still miss some of Bayern’s matches prior to the vital matchup against PSG.
Presumably, Mane would miss Bayern’s matches against RB Leipzig, FC Koln, Eintracht Frankfurt, and it’s unlikely that he would be rushed back early for the round of 16 DFB-Pokal match against Mainz on February 1st and the subsequent Bundesliga match against VfL Wolfsburg on the 5th. Realistically, if all goes according to plan, Mane could feature in the matchup against VfL Bochum on the 11th of the month to get some solid minutes in his legs before the first leg in Paris against PSG, but it remains to be seen if he’ll be ready by then, or perhaps even sooner.
His status will be closely monitored by Julian Nagelsmann and Bayern’s medical team to ensure that he’s not rushed back ahead of full recovery. That has been a problem at Bayern in the past with players like Manuel Neuer and Leon Goretzka, so Nagelsmann will know that unnecessary risks should be avoided at all costs, at the same time knowing that he would 100% like Mane to be fit and available for PSG.
