Mbappé

Paris, June 19 (PL) - The return of captain Kylian Mbappé as a starter with France today seems a distant possibility after his broken nose, just 48 hours before the second match of Les Bleus at the European Championship against the Netherlands.

On French soil, some media are calling it a miracle that the 25-year-old star will be on the pitch of the Red Bull Arena in Leipzig on Friday for a difficult match, which should clear the way to the top of Group D of the continental tournament, hosted by Germany from June 14 to July 14.

According to the specialized sports daily L'Équipe, Kiki will not play against the Orange, citing the opinion of specialists who warn about the delay of a nose fracture recovery, like the one suffered by Real Madrid's new signing on Monday in Düsseldorf in the victorious French debut against Austria.

Other elements handled in the press are the need for Mbappé to rest for a few days, even without training, and to adapt to the protective mask that must be made for him to return to action.

The day before, Les Bleus coach Didier Deschamps said that additional medical tests would be carried out on Wednesday to assess the striker's condition.

He is better, but we will go day by day, said the coach, who said that the star will have to have an operation on his nose at the end of the European Championship. Also yesterday, the president of the French Football Federation, Philippe Diallo, considered it premature to talk about a timetable for Mbappé's return to the starting XI, which implies a logical caution and a willingness to take zero risks.

Regarding the final group match on Tuesday against Poland, opinions are less categorical, although it seems that it will be difficult to see him on the pitch that day.

For the moment, everything indicates that the player will be back for the round of 16, a stage that France must reach, without ignoring that without Mbappé, the Russia-2018 world champion team and Qatar-2022 runner-up loses offensive power in a significant way.