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Franck Ribéry ruled out of the World Cup Franck Ribéry ruled out of the World Cup
(about 3 hours later)
Franck Ribéry is out of the World Cup after he was unable to shake off a persistent back problem, while fellow midfielder Clément Grenier will also miss the tournament. France’s World Cup hopes suffered a severe blow when Franck Ribéry was ruled out of the tournament with a back injury. The Les Bleus manager, Didier Deschamps, has also had to replace the Lyon midfielder Clément Grenier, summoning Southampton’s Morgan Schneiderlin and Montpellier’s Rémy Cabella in their place.
The Bayern Munich winger had attempted to rejoin training with Didier Deschamps’ squad but the coach was forced to announce that he would be unable to make the trip to Brazil. Ribéry had been sidelined for several weeks with the injury, playing no part in the recent friendlies against Norway and Paraguay, but so important was his potential contribution to France’s campaign that Deschamps had been prepared to wait until the last minute for the Bayern Munich forward to recover. However, Deschamps was forced to accept the 31-year-old had no chance of making an impact after the player broke down during training on Friday.
“This morning before the collective training session … he had to stop, the pain was too strong,” Deschamps told a news conference. “We have made checks in the beginning of the afternoon, checks that confirmed the situation has aggravated and he is not capable of training for a few weeks, let alone play a game. We know what Franck is capable of. With Franck Ribery at 100%, we are better. But we have to be ambitious and we will continue to be.” “He had to come to a complete stop during sprint exercises after feeling serious pain,” said Deschamps. “Everything led us to conclude that it is impossible for him to resume training within a few weeks, let alone play a match.”
The Lyon midfielder Grenier has also been ruled out. Montpellier’s Rémy Cabella and Southampton’s Morgan Schneiderlin will replace the duo, whose absence was announced by Deschamps at a press conference in Clairefontaine ahead of his side’s departure to Brazil. After helping France to the final in 2006, Ribéry marked the last World Cup only by his prominent role in France’s spectacular flop and he also disappointed at the last two European Championships. However, he has flourished under Deschamps, contributing six goals and 12 assists in 12 appearances as, at last, he consistently produced for his country the devastating wing play that he displayed for Bayern.
“He [Grenier] had a groin problem with his club but he participated in the last match,” said Deschamps. “He came with us and participated in the training sessions and in the match against Norway. On Wednesday he trained as normal, Thursday morning as well, but on Thursday afternoon in the game, he suffered a terrible blow and felt pain in his right adductor. Although his club form was hampered by a series of injuries this season, including surgery on his buttocks in January, hopes were high that a fully fit and newly focused Ribéry would be able to recapture the magic that made him integral to Bayern’s clean sweep of trophies in the 2012-13 season. This form also earned him a nomination for the Ballon d’Or, in which he finished third behind Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
“He had an MRI scan, which unfortunately again confirmed he will be incapacitated for several weeks, he will not be able to train or, evidently, to play. We submitted to Fifa the two medical documents and we decided to call up Morgan Schneiderlin and Remy Cabella. The two players were on the reserve list and they are similar to the two players who left us. You cannot copy them exactly but Morgan Schneiderlin is the player most in the profile of Clément Grenier, and Rémy Cabella is the most in the profile of Franck Ribéry.” Deschamps conceded that Ribéry’s absence weakens France’s chances, though not fatally. “We have to keep our ambitions, though obviously we perform better with a Ribéry that is 100% fit,” said the manager. Twitter users will no doubt monitor the account of Samir Nasri’s girlfriend following Deschamps’s decision not to summon the Manchester City midfielder as a replacement for Ribéry.
Ribéry had been following an individual training programme to overcome a back problem but failed to prove his fitness after rejoining the full squad on Friday. Grenier sat out the session as he underwent scans on a thigh injury and both players’ worst fears were confirmed by Deschamps. Anara Atanes’s furious online denunciation of Deschamps after Nasri’s omission from the original squad led the manager to threaten legal action against her and hardly improved the player’s chance of being called up once Ribéry was ruled out, even if Nasri may feel that his performances in City’s title-winning season should count for more.
The coach has already been forced into one change to his original squad, with the injured Marseille goalkeeper Steve Mandanda replaced by St Etienne’s Stéphane Ruffier. However, Deschamps apparently thinks Nasri has a potentially disruptive influence and instead turned to Cabella. With only one cap to his name, he does not have Nasri’s experience or honours but has enjoyed a good season with Montpellier, creating goals aplenty while also scoring 14 in 41 matches.
Cabella is unlikely to slot straight into Ribéry’s wide spot in the attacking trident of the 4-3-3 that Deschamps likes to deploy. The favourites to fill the berths either side of the centre-forward are Mathieu Valbuena and Antoine Griezmann. Valbuena endured a difficult season with his club but has rarely let his country down in 33 appearances and took his opportunity to shine in the recent friendlies, producing wonderfully creative performances against Norway and Paraguay.
Griezmann followed a prolific season with Real Sociedad by scoring his first international goal in the 1-1 draw with Paraguay last week, his third cap for his country. The QPR striker Loic Rémy could also be shifted wide, as could Newcastle’s Moussa Sissoko, a more defensive option.
The loss of Grenier to a groin tear seems less ruinous to France’s chances, as, unlike Ribéry, the elegant Lyon midfielder was not a likely starter. Schneiderlin has the skill and dynamism to serve as a useful replacement, even if he has a less expansive range of passing and inferior shooting power to Grenier. France play a final warm-up match against Jamaica on Sunday before heading to Brazil, where they are in Group E with Switzerland, Honduras and Ecuador.