BREAKING: #France Coach #Deschamps Breaks Silence On Replacing Injured Karim #Benzema With Oliver #Giroud—–Didier Deschamps has confirmed France will not call up a replacement for Karim Benzema after he was ruled out of the 2022 World Cup with a thigh injury.
The Real Madrid striker saw his first full training session in Qatar brought to an early conclusion after he suffered an injury on Saturday afternoon.
He was ruled out of France’s opening game against Australia after undergoing a scan, but had hoped to return for their second fixture against Denmark.
However, Benzema took to Instagram to confirm that he had withdrawn from the France World Cup squad on Saturday.
The news came as a blow to Deschamps given the fact France have already lost Christopher Nkunku, Paul Pogba and N’Golo Kante.
Deschamps was asked whether he would call in a replacement for Benzema on Sunday morning. He told reporters he would not.
The reporter said to the France manager: ‘Karim Benzema will be replaced?’, to which Deschamps said: ‘No’.
Benzema suffered a thigh injury in his first full training session after prior fitness issues
Meanwhile, the France national team made the following statement following Benzema’s withdrawal.
They said: ‘Karim Benzema is forced to give up participating in the World Cup. The whole team shares Karim’s sadness and wishes him a speedy recovery.’
Deschamps added: ‘I am extremely sad for Karim Benzema who made this World Cup a major goal.
‘Despite this new blow for the French team, I have full confidence in my group. We will do everything to meet the huge challenge that awaits us.’
Benzema, who was recently crowned as the winner of the Ballon d’Or, has been plagued with injuries so far this season for Real Madrid.
In a message on Instagram Benzema said he had to ‘think about the team’ and withdraw from the squad so that he could free up a spot for someone to come in as a replacement
The thigh injury was not a reoccurrence of the knee and hamstring problems that had seen him train away from the squad alongside Raphael Varane who has also been a doubt for their opener with Australia.
The Madrid star was working his way through a personalised training programme developed by French staff that aimed to help him recover quickly from other concerns.
The three-week absence would have meant he’d miss all of the group stage, as well as the Round of 16 and quarter-finals.
Even then, it would be a huge risk for him to be thrown into an important semi-final or final clash – if France were to make it that far.
