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France hoping to have masked Mbappe available against Dutch at Euro 2024 / Photo: © AFP
France hoping to have masked Mbappe available against Dutch at Euro 2024
France coach Didier Deschamps is hopeful that Kylian Mbappe will be able to play in Friday's Euro 2024 clash with the Netherlands as he said the striker was making good progress in his recovery from a broken nose.
"Everything is going well. It was a heavy collision that he had, but he was able to come out and train yesterday and take part in some activities," Deschamps told reporters in Leipzig on the eve of the Group D encounter.
"That will be the case this evening too. Things are progressing in the right direction enough for us to try to have him available tomorrow.
"We will do what we can to have him available."
A short while after Deschamps spoke to reporters, Mbappe took part in the French team's training session wearing a striking protective face mask in the French colours of blue, white and red.
The France skipper suffered the injury in an accidental collision with Austria defender Kevin Danso late on in his team's 1-0 win in their opening game at the tournament in Duesseldorf on Monday.
Mbappe trained apart from his teammates on Wednesday while wearing a plaster on his nose and did not appear to be overly hindered by the injury.
The French Football Federation said following the Austria game that Mbappe would not require an operation and would be able to return to the pitch once he had been fitted with a mask.
Mbappe's teammate Antoine Griezmann insisted the new Real Madrid signing was "doing really well".
"The nose is a bit less swollen. We will wait until the last moment and see how he is feeling," Griezmann told reporters.
D. Fjodorow--BTZ
