Juventus left out Paul Pogba for disciplinary reasons

 Juven­tus has left out Paul Pog­ba from the Europa League match against SC Freiburg on Thurs­day for a dis­ci­pli­nary rea­son, as con­firmed by the Ital­ian club. While the club did not pro­vide fur­ther details, reports sug­gest that the mid­field­er arrived late for a team retreat on Wednes­day night.

Juven­tus won the first leg of their round-of-16 matchup 1–0, but the news of Fed­eri­co Chiesa’s injury is a poten­tial set­back for the team. Chiesa had just returned from injury but limped off in the sec­ond half.

Pog­ba, who recent­ly returned to action after a long injury lay­off, had made two appear­ances for Juven­tus. The club’s boss, Max Alle­gri, said that France mid­field­er Pog­ba would be avail­able again from Friday.

Alle­gri empha­sized the impor­tance of respect­ing rules with­in the team, stat­ing that char­ac­ter and moral strength are essen­tial to go all the way in a com­pe­ti­tion, besides tech­nique and qual­i­ty. Pog­ba rejoined Juven­tus from Man­ches­ter Unit­ed in July but injured his knee days lat­er. He missed the club’s vic­to­ry against Angel Di Mari­a’s goal and has had a com­plex rela­tion­ship with for­mer Man­ches­ter Unit­ed coach José Mour­in­ho in the past.