Kylian Mbappé leaves France squad with knee injury, returns to Madrid

Kylian Mbappé is returning to Madrid with a knee tendon injury after France ruled its captain out of the rest of the international window following Friday’s victory over Turkey.

The French federation confirmed the injury and his departure from the squad, Reuters reported. The 27-year-old Real Madrid forward scored the only goal in France’s 1–0 Nations League win before leaving the field in the second half.

Mbappé received treatment immediately after scoring and briefly returned to the pitch. He went down again roughly a minute later and could not continue, prompting a substitution during Zinedine Zidane’s first match as France coach.

Zidane said Mbappé had swelling in the knee and would need to return to his club. “We’re not going to take any risks,” the coach said, according to Reuters, after France opened its Group A1 campaign with a victory in Kocaeli.

La Dépêche reported that Mbappé injured his left knee while shooting in the 54th minute. In his postmatch interview with TF1, Zidane described a hyperextension on the shot, while the federation subsequently confirmed that the forward would miss the rest of the gathering.

Désiré Doué came on for Mbappé after the captain’s attempted return to play. Zidane had selected Mbappé on the left of France’s attack, with Ousmane Dembélé playing through the middle, according to La Dépêche’s report.

France has three more fixtures during the international window. It travels to Brussels to face Belgium on September 28, then hosts Italy at the Stade de France on October 2 before meeting Belgium again at the same stadium on October 5.

France’s confirmation of his withdrawal did not include a recovery timetable for the Real Madrid forward. The federation’s statement, as reported by Reuters and La Dépêche, did not identify a return date, announce a treatment plan or specify which club fixtures Mbappé could miss.