William Saliba and Dayot Upamecano absent from France training ahead of World Cup semi-final | OneFootball

Having been granted a day off after their World Cup quarter-final win over Morocco, the French team returned to training on Saturday afternoon at their base camp in the west of Boston.

Kylian Mbappé, who went off towards the end of Thursday’s match with an ankle injury, was seen warming up and training as usual.

The captain, who scored the opening goal against the Atlas Lions towards the hour mark, had appeared in the mixed zone after the match and indicated himself that the knock he received was no cause for concern. Aurélien Tchouaméni, who missed the quarter-final due to a thigh injury, was also back in training. 

The two absentees from the training session, however, were France’s starting centre-back partnership. William Saliba has struggled with a back issue throughout the tournament and had already missed several sessions, as the France staff sought to keep him fit for matchdays.

Dayot Upamecano was also rested, with L’Équipe reporting that the centre-back has also been sidelined for load management reasons. Specifically, the Bayern Munich man has been dealing with foot pain. At this stage, both players are nevertheless expected to be back in time for the clash against Spain.

Les Bleus will have another training session on Sunday morning, before flighting out to Dallas in the afternoon.

GFFN | Raphaël Jucobin – reporting from France’s base camp at Bentley University