Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer responds to Mino Raiola after Paul Pogba comments

Solskjaer revealed full extent of Pogba's fresh ankle injury

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has responded to Paul Pogba's agent Mino Raiola, claiming that players’ representatives should not comment on the business of clubs.

The United manager confirmed the full extent of Pogba’s fresh ankle injury, revealing that bone fragments are preventing the want-away midfielder from playing for Manchester United.

Pogba has missed all but eight of United’s games this season but returned from three months on the sidelines to play twice against Watford and Newcastle over the Christmas period.

The 26-year-old was expected to remain in Solskjaer’s starting line-up but felt discomfort in his ankle after those substitute appearances and missed last week’s trips to Burnley and Arsenal.

Scans earlier this week revealed that Pogba requires surgery on his ankle and, ahead of Saturday’s FA Cup third round tie at Wolves, Solskjaer said this is a new injury rather than a recurrence of an existing problem.

“It’s an ankle injury. Some bone fragments. It’s not a big massive injury,” Solskjaer said. “It will keep him out for a while. We felt he was going to be ready for Burnley. Then he wasn’t we had to do the scan.

“It’s not the same injury, it’s a different injury. Of course, when you get that scan, we speak to him, you consult your own medical people as well like I did, when I did my operation. You want the best second opinion and the advice was to have it done. It’s not a major one and probably, as I said, three or four weeks.”

Solskjaer’s claim that Pogba’s “people” had recommended surgery sparked controversy after the defeat at Arsenal, but the United manager has since insisted that it was the club and not Pogba’s camp that made the decision for the player to go under the knife.

The United manager also dismissed suggestions that United could have delayed Pogba’s lay-off, either until their 17-day break between games at the start of next month or until fellow midfield absentee Scott McTominay had returned.

“It wouldn’t be fair to risk any player’s health. You wouldn’t and if the player is not happy with what he’s feeling, he’s got loads of pain, then it might be a worry that it can get worse, which is always is. That is the decision.”

Pogba admitted to wanting to leave United in the summer and speculation linking the midfielder with a £150m move to Real Madrid refuses to subside. And United’s relationship with Raiola was further strained this week in the fall-out of Erling Haaland’s move to Borussia Dortmund.

Raiola claimed this week that United is a club “out of touch with reality and without a sporting project”, adding that “they would even ruin Maradona, Pele and Maldini.”

Solskjaer suggested that he has spoken to Pogba about his representatives comments. “I don’t think I should be talking to agents or about agents that talk about us, but Paul is our player and agents are hired by players, not the opposite way around,” he said.

“It’s not ‘agents’ players, it’s ‘our players’. What me and Paul are talking about I don’t have to talk to you about. That will be between us.”