Kylian Mbappe to Reportedly Skip Reunion During France's International Break
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Last week, it was confirmed that Real Madrid talisman Kylian Mbappe was set for at least a couple of weeks on the sidelines through injury, with reports suggesting that the Frenchman has been playing with knee pain since the defeat to Celta Vigo on the 7th of December.
It remains to be seen whether or not he will be fit in time to face Manchester City in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League round of 16 clash at the Bernabeu next week, but the same report as above has suggested that he will take no risks with the World Cup on the horizon.
Well, it appears that the caution is being extended to the international break this month. Indeed, as L'Equipe are reporting that the 27-year-old will not play for France later this month, with Les Blues allowing him to recover from his knee injury.
Kylian Mbappe Reportedly Out of March Friendlies
The World Cup finalists are set to play South American sides Brazil and Colombia on the 26th and 29th, respectively, as they prepare for this summer's tournament. However, they will seemingly be doing so without their captain.
There was, at one point, a number of Real Madrid players involved in that game. We could have seen Mbappe, Eder Militao, Rodrygo, Vinicius, Eduardo Camavinga, and Aurelien Tchouameni feature, as well as loanee Endrick.
However, with Mbappe set to sit this break out, Militao sidelined until April, and Rodrygo rupturing his ACL, those numbers have gone down quite a bit. Still, with the former, it certainly feels like a good thing that he will be missing the game, selfish as it may seem.
Not only is it more minutes in the tank ahead of the run in, and potential risks of (aggravating) injury, but there is also the travel to the United States, as well as the jet lag. Simply put, games that Mbappe could do without.
Perhaps that is also the case for Tchouameni, too, though in Camavinga's case, you could argue that some minutes to improve his sharpness could come in handy, given that he has missed a fair bit of game time of late.
So, no reunion for Mbappe with his former manager, Carlo Ancelotti, though there is still the opportunity for some of the others. It will be particularly interesting to see if Endrick gets the call-up for the Brazil national team, having shown some very strong performances on loan at Lyon.
Tom Vinall is a sports writer covering Real Madrid On SI. Previously, he had worked at FanSided as both a contributor and site expert, covering the likes of Spurs and Bayern Munich. He has also previously written for Transfer News Live. Tom was born and lives in Bristol, South West England, and loves to listen to music as well as learning Spanish.
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