Former Premier League star Darren Bent believes Paul Pogba will be eager to prove himself when he returns to action later this month. The France international has missed most of the current campaign for Manchester United with a nagging ankle injury and he underwent an operation for the same at the beginning of the year.

The World Cup-winning midfielder was initially fancied to return to the playing field for the final couple of weeks of the season but he will now player a bigger role with the coronavirus pandemic delaying the conclusion of the campaign by three months. Speaking on TalkSPORT, Bent believes Pogba has received unfair criticism despite his reduced gametime this term and he should be keen to prove a point when the season recommences.
“It’s kind of a witch hunt against him now. He’s had a tough time but I feel like everyone is just taking shots at him without allowing him to come back and try and defend himself. We’ve seen when he’s played well, he had that period when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer first got the job, that eight, nine games got him in the PFA Team of the Year because he was that good. We’ve seen how good he was, we’ve seen what he does for France at the World Cup when he won the World Cup, absolutely fantastic. So I think at times people have just got to get off his back, let him come back and play,” He told.
Pogba has been restricted to only seven appearances in the Premier League and out of those, only five have come from the starting lineup. The midfielder’s current deal with the club expires at the end of next season but the club have the option to extend his stay for another 12 months. There has been no progress in terms of the contract negotiations but the club remain optimistic that they can convince the midfielder to commit to a new long-term deal.