Benzema blow for World Cup holders
Ballon d’Or winner ruled out of French squad on eve of tournament with quadriceps strain
Defending champions France saw their World Cup hopes suffer a huge blow with star striker Karim Benzema out of the tournament after tearing a muscle in his left thigh at training yesterday.
“Karim Benzema is out of the World Cup,” the French football federation said. “After hurting the quadriceps on his left thigh, the Real Madrid striker is forced to give up on taking part.”
Benzema was participating in his first full training session with Les Bleus when he had to come off after feeling some pain in his left thigh.
“He went for an MRI scan in a hospital in Doha, which unfortunately confirmed a tear,” the federation said, adding he will need three weeks to recover.
“I’ve never given up in my life but I have to think of the team, as I have always done,” Benzema posted on his Instagram account. “So reason tells me to give my place to someone who can help our squad have a great World Cup.”
France manager Didier Deschamps said: “I’m very sad for Karim, who had made this World Cup a major objective.”
Benzema, who turns 35 the day after the World Cup final, had hardly played in recent weeks and this was his first full training session with Les Bleus.
Since winning the Ballon d’Or last month, Benzema has played fewer than 30 minutes for Madrid, after coming off the bench in a Champions League game.
France face Australia on Wednesday in Group D, then Denmark four days later and Tunisia on December 1.
It is a crushing blow for Benzema, only the fifth Frenchman to win the Ballon d’Or award and first since Zinedine Zidane, his idol, in 1998.
Benzema was France’s top scorer at the 2014 World Cup but did not play in France’s victorious 2018 World Cup campaign because he was still exiled from the team for his alleged role in a sex-tape scandal with then-France teammate Mathieu Valbuena.
The fallout from the sex-tape scandal led to a dramatic fall from grace for Benzema. He faced a nationwide deluge of vitriol and scathing criticism, including on the political level. It led to a long exclusion from the national team from October 2015 until his recall by Deschamps in May last year.
With his relationship with Deschamps repaired, he scored freely for France, with 10 goals in 16 games since coming back to reach 37 overall, and formed a great partnership with Kylian Mbappe.
He won the hearts of French fans and cemented his place in the affections of Madrid’s equally demanding supporters. Benzema won five Champions League titles and has moved up to second place in the famed Spanish giants’ all-time scoring list with 329 goals.
At last year’s European Championships, Benzema looked sharp and was France’s top scorer with four goals.
Now Benzema joins the list of big names injured shortly before the World Cup: Senegal’s Sadio Mane and Germany’s Timo Werner, not to mention Benzema’s teammates Paul Pogba, N’Gole Kante and Christopher Nkunku.
Deschamps also has an anxious wait to see if central defender Raphael Varane is fit to face Australia — exactly a month since he limped off for Manchester United with a hamstring injury.
Even without Benzema, France still have a strong attack to face Australia. France are likely to start with Olivier Giroud as the central striker, flanked by 2018
World Cup star Mbappe and either Barcelona’s Ousmane Dembele or veteran Antoine Griezmann.
Giroud has scored
49 goals for France, Griezmann has 42 and 23-year-old Mbappe already has 28.
Dembele has been in fine form for
Spanish league leaders Barcelona so far this season.
Deschamps has until tomorrow to call up a replacement for Benzema to his
26-player squad.
Monaco striker
Wissam Ben Yedder, who has three international goals, could be an option.
But Deschamps already has ample forward back-up with Bayern
Munich winger
Kingsley Coman,
Marcus Thuram and Kolo Muani.