Abidal ruled out for France

FRANCE defender Eric Abidal will miss the second leg of the World Cup play-off against Ireland on Wednesday night due to a thigh injury.

The Barcelona full-back played the full 90 minutes of Saturday night’s 1-0 win at Croke Park but sustained the problem in his left leg and will not be available for the return at Stade de France.

Lyon midfielder Jeremy Toulalan is also ruled out, having not recovered from a hamstring injury which kept him out of the Dublin game.

Both men left France’s training centre at Clairefontaine last night and will not be replaced by coach Raymond Domenech.

France skipper Thierry Henry headed back to Paris warning his team-mates their World Cup qualification mission is far from over.

“I am happy, but it is kind of half and half,” he said. “There is still 90 minutes to play in France, so I can only talk about that and being happy.

“We have got another game on Wednesday and this Irish team is a very good team. They showed tonight they can score goals – fortunately for us, they didn’t and we did.

“We got kind of a lucky goal, but in saying that, we played well in the second half. But there is still 90 minutes to go.”