Chelsea’s Lesley Ugochukwu left as a reservist in Thierry Henry’s final list for the Olympics | OneFootball

After weeks of preparation ahead of the Olympics, France head coach Thierry Henry had to submit his final list of 18 players and four more reservists in case of injuries.

Despite initially having one of the strongest squads at his disposal, Henry suffered a lot of troubles composing his 18-man list to compete at the Olympics on home soil. With a lot of clubs refusing to allow their players to take part in the tournament in order to be able to dispute the pre-season with them, there have been lots of moves and opportunities for some players eager to prove their worth. After an intensive training camp, the French head coach had until midnight on Wednesday to submit his final list. From the 22 players competing for the whole training camp, the list has been reduced to 18 players, while the last four could potentially be called up should one player suffer an injury.

As revealed by L’Équipe, the four players sent on the reserve list are Auxerre’s goalkeeper Théo De Percin (23), Monaco’s centre-back Chrislain Matsima (22), Lens’ midfielder Andy Diouf (21) and Chelsea’s Lesley Ugochukwu (20). Sidelined due to an injury for the majority of the season, the midfielder failed to climb Henry’s pecking order in midfield.

GFFN l Grégoire Devaux