Senegal forward Mané ruled out of World Cup with leg injury

The African champions will play without their talisman. 

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE: A man sells Senegalese newspapers, in Dakar, with headlines of Sadio Mane's knee injury. Picture: JOHN WESSELS/AFP via Getty Images)

Senegal forward Sadio Mané will miss the World Cup because of a leg injury, the Senegalese football federation said Thursday.

Mané was injured in a German league game between Bayern Munich and Werder Bremen on Nov. 8.

Most of Senegal’s squad arrived in Qatar for the World Cup on Sunday. The team’s first game in Qatar is against the Netherlands on Monday.

Senegal, the reigning African champions, had hoped that Mané could return but announced Thursday that it’s not possible.

Senegal plays host Qatar four days after it faces the Netherlands. Its final game in Group A is against Ecuador on November 29.

Mané was injured early in the Bayern game. The Bundesliga club said the two-time African player of the year had an injury to the head of the fibula bone in his lower right leg.