France head coach Didier Deschamps has made a massive squad decision after it was announced that Ballon d'Or holder Karim Benzema would not be participating at the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
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The reigning world champions will be without arguably the world's best player in Qatar after it was confirmed that Real Madrid's captain was unable to compete for Les Bleus after suffering a thigh strain during training.
The 35-year-old had already missed significant time for his club side leading up to the tournament, and sustained a fresh injury as he tried to strike a ball in training, according to 1998 World Cup-winning captain Deschamps.
Having already replaced injured forward Christopher Nkunku with Eintracht Frankfurt's Randal Kolo Muani, it was presumed that Benzema's replacement would also be announced with a similar immediacy, but Deschamps has surprised the football fraternity by not calling up anybody to take the Lyon native's place.
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"It's obviously a big blow to lose Karim. He had done everything [to be available], so had we," he explained to Telefoot.
"He was in a session and felt pain in his other leg after an innocuous action.
"The scans confirmed that unfortunately it is too big a strain compared to the schedule that awaits us.
"Will he be replaced? No."
Reports suggested that Antony Martial, Moussa Diaby and Wissam Ben Yedder were all names that were brought up when discussing a possible alternative to Benzema, but Deschamps has opted to keep the squad at 25 players, the rationale behind this reportedly being that they could use midfielder Adrien Rabiot in a more attacking role.
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France have been plagued by injuries to starters in recent weeks, with Benzema joining the likes of Paul Pogba and N'Golo Kante as key national team players who will miss the tournament in the Gulf.
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