No Pogba, no Kante: France's 2018 World Cup winners decimated by injuries

FT Desk

• 1 Nov 2022 20:42 GMT
• 3 min read

France are the defending world champions, but they head for Qatar later this month with Paul Pogba and N'Golo Kante leading nearly €200 million worth of talent unlikely to make the journey through injury.

France romped to their second World Cup in Russia in 2018, and most of the team that started the 4-2 win over Croatia in the final in Moscow then remain in Didier Deschamps' best possible XI now, provided they were all fit.

The only exceptions to that would be Samuel Umtiti, who is now on loan at Lecce from Barcelona, and Blaise Matuidi, who at 35 was most recently winding down his career with David Beckham's Inter Miami.

READ: The players missing the World Cup due to injury

Olivier Giroud started up front in Moscow with Karim Benzema frozen out, and while the Real Madrid man - the freshly minted Ballon d'Or winner - is back in the frame, Giroud remains part of the squad, if not necessarily in the first-choice starting XI.

Of the other eight spots, only Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann and Hugo Lloris are likely to make the trip to Qatar later this month.

Pogba returned to Juventus on a free from Manchester United this summer and immediately tore the meniscus in his right knee. The other half of France's double pivot, Kante, has undergone surgery on a hamstring injury as his Chelsea contract runs down.

READ: Paul Pogba out of World Cup: Is his top-level career over?

Laundry list of absentees

Per Football Transfers' in-house algorithm, that's €58m worth of talent unavailable, but it doesn't stop there.

At the back, Umiti's central defensive partner from four years ago, Raphael Varane, left the field in tears during Man Utd's 1-1 draw with Chelsea last month after picking up a muscular injury. He is touch and go while potential understudies Lucas Hernandez of Bayern Munich and PSG vice-captain Presnel Kimpembe are also sidelined.

Even Lloris had an injury scare in the run-up to the tournament. His return to fitness this week will be entirely welcome for les Bleus - second-choice Mike Maigna is out with a calf complaint!

Players like Aurelien Tchouameni, a midfielder Real Madrid paid Monaco €100m for this summer, and William Saliba, who has impressed since returning to Arsenal, mean that France can still put together a formidable squad.

But having nearly €200m worth of talent either out or extremely doubtful is far from ideal for the world champions.