There are still a few hours left to hope – or rather to pray, at the point where we are – but it is surely not useless to prepare for bad news. Because if it will be necessary to wait until Monday morning to really know the extent of the damage (The Team speaks of three weeks of absence this Sunday), the face of Raphaël Varane when leaving the lawn of Stamford Bridge on Saturday during the match between Manchester United and Chelsea (1-1) said a lot.
Short-circuited by severe muscle pain as he tried to intervene on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, the central defender could not hold back his tears. Those of a player who knows this feeling only too well and who knows that the time to return in time before the World Cup promises to be very short.
Didier Deschamps will announce the list of players selected on November 9, and the first match for the France team is scheduled for the 22, against Australia. The coach had repeated it when announcing his last list: “I will not leave with a player, whoever he is, who cannot be physically fit for the first match. »
Varane, unfortunately for him, is well placed to know. Injured (in the thigh, already) before Euro 2016, he had to leave the Blues, when he could have hoped to be back for the second or third group match. Deschamps had been inflexible. “On that, I will have no evolution”, had also assured the latter in September.
Towards a return to a four-man defense?
The worst is to be feared for the vice-captain of the selection, who had missed a month and a half of competition between November and December of last year for the same type of muscle injury. A package from the Mancunian would create a big void in the tricolor locker room, as his influence has grown in recent years. It would also force Deschamps to review his tactical copy, because a three-man defense with and without Varane, who holds the most delicate position in the center, would not have the same reliability at all.
Jules Koundé, Dayot Upamecano, William Saliba or Ibrahima Konaté, natural applicants in the absence of the boss, are not particularly comfortable in this position. A return to a four-man defense would then be an option, but the preparation time before jumping into the deep end will be very short to make the necessary readjustments within a team that has been playing in 3-5-2 for a long time. months now.
So here is a new puzzle in perspective for Didier Deschamps and his staff, not spared in recent weeks by bad news. N’Golo Kanté is already forfeited, Mike Maignan is more than uncertain, Paul Pogba will have to perform a small miracle to be there. Small glimmers, however, the midfielder of Juventus Turin seems ahead of his time, just like Lucas Hernandez, another badly injured on the return. Presnel Kimpembe is also hoped for quickly.
The remaining three weeks of competition before leaving for Qatar are going to be very, very stressful. Maybe we should think about putting Kylian Mbappé and Karim Benzema under glass, right?