With Senegal sweating over Sadio Mane's fitness ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, a Senegal football federation board member has made a big admission about the former Liverpool winger's current state.
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The Lions of Teranga suffered a major injury scare last week after he sustained an injury during a Bundesliga win over Werder Bremen.
Mane was forced to be taken off in the first half of his club side's victory, before reports across Europe suggested that the Bayern Munich star was set to be unavailable for his country in Qatar.
The winger, though, was included in Aliou Cisse's 26-man squad, but questions over what impact he will have at the tournament remain due to the apparent seriousness of the leg injury he picked up.
Speaking recently to the media, Senegal football federation board member Abdoulaye Sow seemed to confirm the worst, revealing that Mane is likely to be miss his nation's first few matches of the World Cup.
"We will have to rely on playing the first games without Sadio and win without Sadio because we have 25 players apart from Sadio," Sow said, according to ESPN.
"No one would have wanted it, but that's what's happened to us."
Mane is Senegal's leading goalscorer in history with 34 strikes, while he is also closing in on Henri Camara's all-time appearance record.
Camara represented his country on 99 occasions, with Mane having played 93 times for the African giants.
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