Paul Pogba came off the bench to replace Olivier Giroud in France’s 1-1 draw with Ukraine in their World Cup Qualifier on Wednesday. He is also expected to feature against Kazakhstan later on Sunday.

France manager Didier Deschamps says Pogba needs patience to get back to his best after a lengthy spell on the sidelines for Manchester United

He is not on top of his game, that’s for sure. When he came off the bench against Ukraine, we were not having our best moment. But obviously, those 30 minutes were good for him.

Like every player that comes back from injury, he needs time. He was in this situation in November, he came with not a lot of minutes and played one hour against Finland which was not that good, but it didn’t stop him from having a great game against Portugal after that.

He is capable of playing from the start but also coming in during the game. But he needs to play minutes in order to get fit again.

Anthony Martial was also a second half substitute in this game, coming on for Kylian Mbappe, but neither were able to add to Antoine Griezmann’s opening goal.




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