Four years after he left through the back door, Manchester United will roll out the red carpet for Paul Pogba’s second debut in Friday’s Premier League home game with Southampton.
Pogba first donned a United first-team shirt when he came on as a half-time substitute for Ryan Giggs in a 3-0 League Cup win over Leeds United in front of 31,031 people at Elland Road in September 2011.
His return to action for the club will not be so inauspicious, after United paid Juventus a world-record 89 million pounds (105 million euros, $116 million) to bring the French midfielder back to Old Trafford.
Pogba has not played since France’s 1-0 loss to Portugal in the Euro 2016 final, but he told the Manchester Evening News: “You have to ask the manager, but I feel very good and have been training for 10 days.
“I am quite used to this. I played the World Cup two years ago when at Juve and three years ago I was at the Under-20s World Cup as well.
“So I am OK. It is about your body and I have been training on my holidays.”
Pogba, 23, missed United’s 3-1 win at Bournemouth last Sunday due to a suspension carried over from last season’s Coppa Italia, but his lack of match fitness meant he was unlikely to have featured anyway.
Should he play from the start, United manager Jose Mourinho must decide where he is going to play.
Mourinho has started the season with a 4-2-3-1 formation and Pogba is expected to take up one of the midfield berths in front of the back four.
Marouane Fellaini and Ander Herrera occupied those roles at Bournemouth.
Much has changed since Pogba’s last United appearance, in a 5-0 league win away to Wolverhampton Wanderers in March 2012.
Alex Ferguson retired as manager the following year and Mourinho is the third man to have succeeded him, while former stalwarts such as Giggs, Paul Scholes, Rio Ferdinand and Patrice Evra are no longer around.
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