French players and football federation hopeful Mbappe can play through broken nose | OneFootball

France midfielder Adrien Rabiot is hoping that talisman Kylian Mbappe will be able to play through the rest of Euro 2024 after breaking his nose in their opening game victory over Austria.

Mbappe suffered the injury in a duel with Austrian defender Kevin Danso and was taken to hospital after the game.

Speaking in a press conference, the president of the French football federation, Philippe Diallo, said: “Concerning his participation in the rest of the tournament, it is a bit premature to decide that. The news coming from the doctors is more positive than not and luckily he doesn’t need surgery which would rule him out completely for the rest of the tournament.”

“They have tried to limit the consequences of the impact. It happened last night and there is no immediate surgical intervention right now. We will wait and see during the day [Tuesday]. We will see exactly what happens over the next day or two.”

And Mbappe’s team-mate Rabiot pointed to his Juventus team-mate Wojech Szczesny using a protective mask to play through a similar injury as confidence that Mbappe can soon return.

“This should be discussed more precisely with the doctor but for us at Juventus, a short time ago we had the same thing Szczesny and he came back very quickly.

“He may have to skip the Netherlands match but I think that after that he will be back.”

Arsenal defender William Saliba admitted that the injury to Mbappe soured the mood in the changing room after France’s nervy opening win: “I hope that no matter what happens, he is back soon because I think we need him.

“We’re happy with the first match because it is very important and yes, it was not an easy team.

“But of course we are also worried about our captain. Hopefully it’s nothing serious and that he’ll be back soon.”

Mbappe, meanwhile, took to Twitter to ask for suggestions on masks he could wear for the rest of the tournament…