William Saliba misses France training with muscular issue | OneFootball

Arsenal’s William Saliba missed France’s training session on Wednesday with muscular pain, according to a report.

France’s William Saliba eyes the ball during the UEFA Euro 2024 Group D football match between Austria and France at the Duesseldorf Arena in Duesseldorf on June 17, 2024. (Photo by OZAN KOSE/AFP via Getty Images)

L’Equipe (via GFFN) reported on Wednesday that William Saliba was set to miss France’s training session on Wednesday with muscular pain.

Saliba wasn’t the only one, with Dayot Upamecano also missing the session with a similar issue.

The two centre-backs had started together for France in their opening group game, but they seemingly face a race against time to return for Friday’s match against the Netherlands.

DUSSELDORF, GERMANY: William Saliba of France celebrates victory with teammate Dayot Upamecano during the UEFA EURO 2024 group stage match between Austria and France at Düsseldorf Arena on June 17, 2024. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

Saliba will hope the problem isn’t anything that could keep him out of Friday’s game, as this looked like his opportunity to break into the France starting lineup on a more regular basis.

After a long period of Didier Deschamps preferring to start Upamecano alongside Ibrahima Konate, he finally opted to pick Saliba for his first major international tournament start on Monday.

“If I played Saliba, it’s because I thought he was more ready than Konate for such a match,” Deschamps explained afterwards.

“I don’t want to lose anyone either, we will need everyone. They (Saliba and Upamecano) have 120 minutes together for the France national team, it’s not a lot.

“But they have this ability to be very solid in one-on-one [situations], even if there were some clearances that they could improve on, they exuded a lot of strength and calmness. We needed that against such an opponent.”

France’s William Saliba and Dayot Upamecano fight for the ball with Austria’s Marcel Sabitzer during the UEFA Euro 2024 Group D football match between Austria and France at the Duesseldorf Arena in Duesseldorf on June 17, 2024. (Photo by ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP via Getty Images)

If Saliba isn’t ready for Friday’s game and Konate comes back in, he’ll have to win his spot back later in the tournament. That might not be easy.