Standard
Sadio Mane and Edouard Mendy have both been picked in a strong Senegal squad for the Africa Cup of Nations.
Senegal are one of the favourites for the tournament, which gets underway in Cameroon on January 9 and runs through until the final on February 6.
Mane, the reigning African Footballer of the Year, will be key to Senegal’s hopes of winning a first continental title after they runners-up at the last edition in Egypt in mid-2019.
Coach Aliou Cisse has selected a 27-man squad for the tournament, including Kalidou Koulibaly and Watford’s Ismaila Sarr, who are both doubts with injury.
Koulibaly, who will captain his country should he be fit, suffered a thigh strain playing for Napoli earlier this month, which ruled him out of action for the whole of December.
Sarr injured his knee in Watford’s 4-1 win over Manchester United in November, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s last match in charge of United, and the winger has not featured since.
Cisse has clearly decided that both players are a risk worth taking for the tournament, where Senegal kick their Group B campaign off against Zimbabwe. They will also face Guinea and Malawi in the group stage…
