Manchester United do not expect Paul Pogba to return for another three weeks due to a troublesome ankle injury.
Pogba suffered an ankle knock in the Premier League draw with Southampton on August 31 and, though he returned for successive games in late September against Rochdale and Arsenal, he has not played since.
The 26-year-old wore a cast to protect his ankle while he was training in Dubai in early October and came out of it earlier this month before heading to Miami during the international break.
Pogba filmed himself playing basketball after attending a Miami Heat game. Some United supporters wondered whether Pogba could return sooner since he was playing an indoor sport in his downtime.
"He had another test and scan just at the start of the international break and it's not healed yet," United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said. "But he's stepping up the recovery, so he doesn't have to have the cast on.
"He's been out of the cast for six or seven weeks, so he's gradually now stepping up, walking on the treadmill, biking. It'll still be a few weeks. We hope to see him in 2019, yeah.
When it was mentioned Pogba had been playing basketball, Solskjaer replied: "Did I say at my last press conference? We don't play basketball. I don't see many basketball players tackling ankles twisting and turning with studs, he's not ready to train, no."
Nine United players travelled to Dubai last week for some warm weather training that Solskjaer was keen to clarify that the club expensed. "We had to pay for it! I decided they should go, if only so they would have had to pay for it themselves!
"I felt it was time for them to go there, get some sun on their backs, bring a couple of coaches, do training, bring their partners and kids, nothing formal.
"And it's been quite rainy and floody in Manchester, so it was good for them to go there."
