Kylian Mbappé was not on the training pitch at Clairefontaine on Wednesday when France’s squad went through their final session before flying to Milan. The 27-year-old Real Madrid forward is being seen by the national team’s doctors and physiotherapists instead, with no injury formally announced.
Mbappé is now a doubt for the UEFA Nations League meeting with Italy at the San Siro on Thursday, a match Zinédine Zidane’s side can draw to secure a place in the quarter-finals. France have 10 points from four games and sit top of Group A1.
Three names already off the list
The captain’s absence from training comes after a week of departures. Thuram, Kalulu and Tchouaméni all left the squad over the preceding days. Sael Kumbedi and Eli Junior Kroupi were called up to replace Thuram and Kalulu; Tchouaméni, who has gone back to Real Madrid for further recovery, has not been replaced in a squad Zidane trimmed to 23 last week.
For Zidane, the pattern is familiar. Mbappé also withdrew early from his first international camp as France manager in September, when a knee injury cut short an experiment deploying the Real Madrid forward as a central striker against Türkiye.
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Dembélé’s unanswered message
Wednesday’s news lands with the camp already under unusual internal strain. L’Équipe, cited by Goal, paints Mbappé as more isolated now, without the inner circle of Dembélé, Thuram, Oulis and Chérki that surrounded him at the World Cup.
The standoff with Ousmane Dembélé is the sharpest edge of it. The Paris Saint-Germain forward never answered a WhatsApp message Mbappé sent to try to clear the air after comments around last season’s Ballon d’Or campaign, L’Équipe first reported. Dembélé is not in Zidane’s current squad.
France fly to Milan on Wednesday afternoon. Kick-off at the San Siro is on Thursday, with the final group game against Türkiye in Paris on November 15.
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