Anthony Martial sustained a knee injury in France’s 2-0 World Cup qualifier win at Kazakhstan on Sunday.
France manager Didier Deschamps has offered an encouraging update on the Manchester United striker.
The 25-year-old was replaced by Kylian Mbappe in the second half, after assisting Ousmane Dembele’s opener.
Martial was in discomfort as he left the pitch just before the hour mark, but he has not yet returned to Manchester for treatment. Instead he will travel with the France squad to Bosnia and Herzegovina tonight.
Descamps has described Martial’s knee injury as minor which is why it was decided to allow him stay with the national squad, not that we agree with the decision given United’s hectic fixture schedule.
“Anthony has a small issue on his knee. Nothing is decided yet,” said Deschamps (via Manchester Evening News).
“He won’t be taking part in the training session a bit later. We’ll see tomorrow.
“Anything serious has been dismissed. We’ve run some tests, but there’s still the pain, and having travelled as long as we have, that hasn’t helped.”
Pretty selfish from Deschamps when he’s got a squad full of attacking players. While Martial needs game time to boost his confidence, I would argue that after getting a knock he should have been sent back to Manchester.
There’s no two ways about it in my mind, especially for a qualifying match France should be winning without any problems.
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