Why is Kylian Mbappé not playing for France vs Italy and should fans be worried?
What every club fan wants during an international break, above all else, is for all of their players to return safe and sound. Well, for a second window in a row, Madridistas are forced to sweat over Kylian Mbappé.
During the previous international break, in the act of scoring the night's only goal at Kocaeli Stadium, Mbappé suffered a hamstring injury during France's 1-0 win over Türkiye in İzmit. Luckily, because that break was so long, and this came during the first fixture, he did not miss any Real Madrid games.
Now though, ahead of les Bleus' clash with Italy at San Siro on Thursday night, Mbappé will not be involved. Considering he has scored 18 goals in his last 15 competitive international appearances, this is obviously a blow.
Speaking ahead of the match in Milan, this is what Zinédine Zidane had to say:
Kylian will miss tomorrow’s match. He felt a slight pain, and as usual we do not want to risk anything. These are unfortunate matters but they are part of football, and I hope he will be with us on Sunday.
Zizou later added that Mbappé is dealing with a "small discomfort", but would not go into any further details, reiterating his optimism that the 27 year old will be available for Sunday night's clash with Türkiye at Stade Atlantique in Bordeaux.
By then, France may be assured a spot in the UEFA Nations League quarter-finals. Les Bleus are currently top of Group A1, three points ahead of Italy, so will have top spot rubber stamped with victory at Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, which does feel likely, despite the fact they were held to a 1-1 draw by Italy at the Stade de France last month.
Thus, there would be no need for Zidane to risk Mbappé, which would surely be good news for Real Madrid. Nevertheless, should the 27 year old's injury issues concern fans? Well, Mbappé has played almost every minute of all 16 La Liga and Champions League matches this season, scoring 17 goals.
Last year though, he did miss nine matches due to a knee injury, including the end of the short-lived Xabi Alonso era, as well as key matches against Manchester City and then May's Clásico at Camp Nou. Thus, Mbappé's minutes perhaps do need to be more carefully managed, so an international break in which he does not feature at all for France could be ideal, even if this is certainly not what he would want.
