PSG supporters are starting to feel they have some sort of Champions League curse.
When the big games come around, so do the injuries and this time is worst than most previously. When they were drawn against Manchester United for the competition’s first knockout round, it must have seemed liked a good draw.
Sure, playing against a disciplined Jose Mourinho side would have presented issues, but the English club were on such a downer and surrounded by so much negativity that everything looked favourable for Thomas Tuchel’s side.
Then Ole Gunnar Solskjær took over, and since the change Manchester United have been the most in-form team in the Premier League.
Neymar’s injury was of course a big blow, and yet PSG would still have been able to field Kylian Mbappe and Edinson Cavani upfront.
The Uruguayan is now absolutely out, report L’Equipe.
Picking up a right thigh injury against Bordeaux at the weekend, subsequent scans have confirmed he’s unavailable and L’Equipe say his chances of being fit for the return match ‘flirt with zero’.
Thomas Meunier is also out, having picked up a ‘slight concussion’ in the same match, and despite Adrien Rabiot now training again with the first team, and Tuchel wanting the chance to pick him, the club still want their contract rebel banished.
Off the pitch, PSG will be taking 1,600 fans to Old Trafford, including 800 members of the Collectif Ultras Paris.