• World Cup 2022

France vs Argentina: Deschamps angered by continued Benzema speculations

Karim Benzema - France
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The French striker has fully recovered from his injury ahead of the World Cup final.

Didier Deschamps has ruled out a late call-up for Karim Benzema ahead of France’s World Cup final clash against Argentina.

Benzema left France’s camp in Qatar with an injury just before the tournament. However, Les Bleus managed to reach the World Cup final without the Ballon d’Or winner.

Having regained his full fitness in recent days, Benzema was tipped to make a late comeback in the final. But Deschamps’ latest remark shows he’s not interested in speculation over his squad decisions.

“Are you spreading the word among foreign journalists? If I don’t answer, you’ll say I’m p*ssed off,” Deschamps said on Saturday.

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“I have players who have been injured before. Karim is one of them. The last to be injured is is Lucas Hernandez.

Since then, I have 24 players to manage and you know them. To ask the question vis-a-vis these players, if I may say so, is at least clumsy, if not a little more.

“The group is there. I don’t take care of the invitations of players, former players or injured players. I don’t know who will be there.”

Before Deschamps’ comments, Benzema had poured cold water on the rumours around his possible comeback with an Instagram post.

On Friday, the Real Madrid striker published a photo of himself with the caption reading: “I’m not interested.”

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