Kylian Mbappé has been left out of Didier Deschamps’ France squad for the upcoming Nations League fixtures against Israel and Belgium to aid his recovery from a thigh injury.
Mbappé suffered the knock in Real Madrid’s 3-2 LaLiga win over Alavés on Sept. 24 and was initially expected to miss three weeks, though he was fit enough to come off the bench in his club’s shock 1-0 defeat away at Lille in the Champions League on Wednesday.
Despite that ahead-of-schedule return, Deschamps has chosen to leave his captain out to allow him to maximise recovery time while staying in Madrid.
Naming his first roster since Antoine Griezmann‘s surprise decision to retire from international duty with 137 caps, Deschamps has selected Christopher Nkunku, Michael Olise and Bradley Barcola to help fill the gap left by the absences of the Mbappé and the Atlético Madrid veteran.
The last time a France squad didn’t feature either Mbappé or Griezmann was in November 2013, as Les Bleus beat Ukraine 3-0 to qualify for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Mbappé was 14 at the time.
France play Israel in Budapest on Oct. 11 before travelling to Brussels for the game against Belgium on Oct. 14.