Defenders Raphaël Varane and Ibrahima Konaté, as well as winger Kingsley Coman, are “preserved” and will be absent from training for the France team on Friday (4:00 p.m.), two days before the World Cup final against Argentina. , we learned from a source close to the Blues. Coman was already absent from the session organized on Thursday due to a “little viral syndrome” according to the explanation given by the French Football Federation. “His condition does not inspire particular concern about Sunday’s final,” she said.
Cold
Varane and Konaté will not participate in the scheduled training at the Jassim bin Hamad stadium, the Blues’ training center in Doha, according to the source close to the Blues who “probably” evokes a cold snap to explain their diminished condition.
The hypothesis of a virus circulating within the France team is gaining momentum since other players have been sick in recent days. First there was Dayot Upamecano, who remained on the bench on Wednesday in the semi-final against Morocco (2-0), then Adrien Rabiot, forfeited for this meeting. Coman was added to the roster on Wednesday. Coach Didier Deschamps said after the half that the Bayern Munich player had “also felt a little feverish in the afternoon”.
“Nothing mean”
The daily The Team Friday establishes a link between these different cases. Varane and Konaté, holders against Morocco, “are victims of the viral syndrome which has affected the French team since the beginning of the week”, he writes, referring to symptoms “visibly light for the first and a little more pronounced for the second”. “There is a little flu that is spreading but nothing bad,” explained Randal Kolo Muani, the Blues striker, at a press conference on Friday afternoon.
“Randal is not a doctor, we will explain to you later”, nuanced the press chief of the Blues. Faced with the virus affecting the group, caused according to Deschamps by the “temperatures which have dropped” in Qatar or even “air conditioning”, the France team claims to have taken health precautions. Contacts between Upamecano, Rabiot and the rest of the group had notably been limited before the semi-final, explained the coach.
Hernandez and Tchouaméni also spared
Theo Hernandez and Aurélien Tchouaméni, victims of bruises according to the French Federation, missed the collective training of the Blues on Friday two days before the World Cup final against Argentina, like Ibrahima Konaté, Kingsley Coman and Raphaël Varane, sick.
48 hours from the clash at the Lusail stadium, only 19 of the 24 Blues players were on the pitch at the Jassim bin Hamad stadium, the Blues’ training center. “Aurélien Tchouaméni (hip contusion) and Théo Hernandez (knee contusion) are spared and remain working in the gym,” said the FFF.