As we head into the latest international break, some Premier League players will be more relieved than others to be escaping domestic football for a while.

Paul Pogba will inevitably be one of them following a tough couple of months at Manchester United, where he's come under scrutiny and even been dropped by Jose Mourinho.

Both the Frenchman and Alexis Sanchez started on the bench for Saturday's FA Cup encounter with Brighton and watched on as their teammates got the job done.

He also missed out against Sevilla in the Champions League in midweek, instead coming on in the 60th minute and ending up on the losing side.

Mourinho's reason for not starting Pogba for both games was simple: he didn't deserve to based on recent performances.

"It's just the team that I think is the best team to try to win the match," said Mourinho. "We don't have a match in two days or a reason to think about another match.

"This is the only match to think about and I'm playing the players that I believe deserve to play."

POGBA MAKES A CHANGE... TO HIS HAIR

The pressure is mounting on Pogba to start delivering for United, but for the next few weeks he will be focused on the France national team - and his new hairstyle.

In another daring change, the 25-year-old has dyed his hair blue and blonde, labelling it as "Super Saiyan Blue" in reference to Japanese anime TV programme Dragon Ball Z.

Not everyone got that, though, as evidenced by Olivier Giroud's hilarious reaction when he saw Pogba's hair for the first time.

In the video below, Giroud greets his international teammate by saying: "Ça va mon Pikachu?" which translates to: "How's it going, Pikachu?"

PAUL "PIKACHU" POGBA

It's so accurate. Ex-France midfielder Emmanuel Petit also thinks Pogba's attitude needs to change in terms of his relationship with Mourinho.

"Paul, I'll give him a little bit of advice - change attitude a bit," said Petit. "It gets tiresome when you're sulking permanently.

"He should stop making it a Mourinho-Pogba duel because the club of Manchester United is much more important than those two guys.

"Right now, he's making it personal and you can clearly see that on the pitch as he is sending out a lot of negative signals."