Jose Mourinho's Roma defeated Marco Baroni's Lecce 2-1 on Sunday night at the Stadio Olimpico as forward Paulo Dybala struck home a penalty in the early stages of the second half to win the game for his team. However, the 28-year-old Dybala suffered a worrisome injury while taking the penalty that made his FIFA World Cup 2022 participation a major doubt.
Roma center-back Chris Smalling scored the opener for the Giallorossi in the sixth minute, but the Lecce winger Gabriel Strefezza scored an equalizer five minutes before the first half.
In the 48th minute, Roma star Paulo Dybala found the back of the net with his low-struck penalty on the left side of the goal post and immediately suffered an injury to his leg. As soon as he struck the winner, the Argentine started limping and was surrounded by his teammates.
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After scoring the goal, Dybala was substituted straight away with tears in his eyes. With disappointment and frustration, La Joya sat on the bench with an ice pack on his thigh as the Serie A club head coach Jose Mourinho's comments suggested Dybala's participation in the upcoming world cup is in serious doubt.
"I say (Dybala is) bad, not to say very, very bad. Unfortunately, it is more very bad than bad. I'm not a doctor and I haven't spoken to one, but from my experience, from what I understood from talking to Paulo, it (will be) difficult," Mourinho told DAZN.
Dybala left Juventus to play for Roma in July 2022 and has scored seven goals in 11 matches across all competitions. Meanwhile, Roma are currently on the fifth place with six victories in nine games while Lecce have managed just one win in their nine outings and are placed on 16th spot in the Serie A points table.