France's World Cup chances suffered a severe blow when influential
winger Franck Ribery was ruled out with lower back problems on Friday.
Coach Didier Deschamps also said that attacking midfielder Clement
Grenier was out of the finals in Brazil with a groin problem as Les
Bleus suffered their third injury since the 23-man squad was unveiled.
Second-choice goalkeeper Steve Mandanda also pulled out.
"This morning before the collective training session ... he had to stop,
the pain was too strong," Deschamps told a news conference.
"We have made checks in the beginning of the afternoon, checks that
confirmed the situation has aggravated and he is today not capable of
training for a few weeks, let alone play a game."
Ribery and Grenier will be replaced in the squad by Morgan Schneiderlin and Remy Cabella.
The replacements have to be validated by world governing body Fifa as
they are made after the 23-man squad submission deadline, which was on
June 2.
"We will hand over those two files and they will take the time they need to reply," said Deschamps.
"They are the first, Franck or Clement, to be very sad. Franck had
problems but everything was going in the right direction until his
situation suddenly aggravated."France start their World Cup campaign on June 15 against Honduras in Group E, where they will also meet Ecuador and Switzerland
No comments:
Post a Comment