Chelsea’s Wesley Fofana the latest defender to withdraw from the France squad

The World Cup runners-up take on the Netherlands on Friday and then Ireland the following Monday.

Sun, 19 Mar, 2023 - 17:55

John Fallon

Chelsea’s Wesley Fofana has become the latest defender to withdraw from the France squad for their opening Euro 2024 qualifiers, including Monday week’s visit to face Ireland.

Fofana – bought for £75m from Leicester City at the start of the season – was hoping to make his debut against Netherlands on Friday only to hobble off with a hamstring strain towards the end of Saturday’s 2-2 draw against Everton.

Fellow Premier League defender William Saliba was also ruled out of the double-header on Saturday after suffering a back injury in Arsenal’s Europa League exit to Sporting Lisbon 48 hours earlier.

Didier Deschamps still has Dayot Upamecano and Ibrahima Konate available as his first-choice partnership in the absence of retired Raphaël Varane but they have a tough 90 minutes to navigate at the Stade de France against the Dutch before they travel to Dublin.

Barcelona’s Jules Koundé is another option to switch into central defence if the France manager opts to reinstate Benjamin Pavard to right-back after he was frozen out just one game into their World Cup campaign in November.

Saliba and Fofana have been replaced by Monaco’s Axel Disasi (25) and Nice’s Jean-Clair Todibo (23).

It marks a first senior call-up for the latter but Disasi featured in three games in Qatar, including as a substitute against Argentina in the final they lost on penalties.

Deschamps will assemble his squad at their CNF Clairefontaine training base on Monday afternoon, when a decision on his new captain is expected.

Veteran attacking midfielder Antoine Griezmann was considered favourite but there’s growing momentum towards superstar Kylian Mbappé taking the armband, with the predecessor Hugo Lloris trumpeting the 24-year-old qualities as an inspirational leader.