Senegal will begin their 2022 FIFA World Cup journey on Monday, November 21st with a tough clash against the Netherlands in Group A and unfortunately, Bayern Munich striker and talisman for the country Sadio Mane won't be present.

The 30-year-old suffered an injury recently in Germany and while there was hope he'd be able to recover in time for Qatar, it will not happen. Via Fabrizio Romano:

“BREAKING: Sadio Mané will miss the World Cup, Senegal confirms. He will not be able to be part of the squad as he’s not recovering from his injury.”

A devastating blow for the Senegalese National Team. Mane is their best attacker and helped them win the Africa Cup of Nations in the summer against Egypt. Although Mane hasn't been firing on all cylinders in his first campaign with Bayern quite yet, he's still a quality talent who was expected to play a key part for Senegal at the World Cup.

On Tuesday, it was already determined that Mane would miss out on the “first games” because of the leg injury, per a Senegal soccer federation member.

“We will have to rely on playing the first games without Sadio and win without Sadio because we have 25 players apart from Sadio,” Abdoulaye Sow said. “No one would have wanted it, but that’s what’s happened to us.”

Thankfully, Senegal is in a group where they can still progress to the knockout stages. Aside from facing a very solid Netherlands side in their first match, Qatar and Ecuador also round out the pod, two countries the Lions of Teranga should beat.  Sadio Mane will be watching from afar hoping his nation can make some noise in the biggest tournament on the globe.