France boss Didier Deschamps clarifies Ousmane Dembele’s absence from warm-up match

France National Team head coach Didier Deschamps revealed the reason behind benching PSG superstar Ousmane Dembele in their previous World Cup warm-up match.

Speaking in an interview with Telefoot (via Le10Sport), Didier Deschamps is set to name Ousmane Dembele in Les Bleus’ starting eleven in their upcoming World Cup warm-up game versus Northern Ireland. The French boss clarified his decision to rest the Ballon d’Or holder for the match against the Ivory Coast.

“A team similar to the one that will play against Senegal? Probably. Not necessarily a carbon copy, but I’m not going to change six or seven players between those who start tomorrow and those who will start on June 16th. Dembélé in the starting lineup? Yes, like ten other players. He’s one of the players who wasn’t used after the Champions League final because they had a lot of playing time. They need to recover physically and mentally. All 26 are available for tomorrow,” remarked Deschamps when talking about his team news for their final friendly clash with Northern Ireland.

Deschamps indeed rested all of his called-up players in the last warm-up game, who featured in the Champions League final between PSG and Arsenal. Dembele played a crucial role throughout the season for Luis Enrique’s PSG, but was locked down by a resilient Arsenal defence for a major portion of the Champions League final, before he was benched to avoid aggravating a recent injury.

France eye yet another World Cup silverware with a formidable attacking force as they are set to face Senegal, Iraq, and Norway in the group stage.