The Blues and Paris-Saint-Germain (PSG) striker Kylian Mbappé has been diagnosed positive for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and has withdrawn from the France-Croatia match scheduled for Tuesday evening in Saint-Denis, announced on Monday September 7, coaching of the France team.
The young Frenchman, who nevertheless participated in the training the day before the match Monday evening before learning the results of the test passed Monday morning, is the seventh PSG player to be positive, after Neymar in particular.
“He was placed away from the group after receiving the results, at the end of training, before returning to his home in the evening. Like the entire delegation, Kylian Mbappé had undergone a test prior to the rally. The result was negative, like the one last Wednesday, at the request of UEFA [Union des associations européennes de football], within the framework [du match] Sweden-France “ Saturday, said the management of the Blues.
The French will therefore certainly also be absent on Thursday for the return of PSG to Ligue 1, in Lens, like six of his teammates including superstar Neymar and Argentines Angel Di Maria and Leandro Paredes.
He also risks withdrawing from the “classic” Ligue 1 against Olympique de Marseille, scheduled for Sunday: according to the medical protocol of the League, each player diagnosed positive must be isolated for eight days.
Sanitary bubble
The France team, which played Saturday (1-0) in Sweden for its first match in nearly ten months, was hit hard by the pandemic: Mbappé is the fourth player to forfeit after a positive result.
Just before the announcement of the list of twenty-three players summoned for the start of the League of Nations, Paul Pogba had indeed had to give up, then the Lyonnais Houssem Aouar a few days later. Finally, the Marseillais Steve Mandanda had also had to leave the Blues on Friday morning, after two positive results probably due to “Residues” according to the French Football Federation – he had previously recovered from the virus caught in his club.
For a week, the Blues have been evolving in a health bubble, chaining PCR tests and partitioning themselves from the outside, between their training center in Clairefontaine, their hotel in Stockholm or the Stade de France, where they trained on Monday in late afternoon and where they will face Croatia on Tuesday evening (8:45 p.m.).
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