Illness has swept by way of the France World Cup camp on the eve of their semi-final.
The reigning champions face Morocco on the Al Bayt Stadium on Thursday morning (AEDT).
But their preparations have been hit with a significant blow with a bug spreading throughout the squad.
Dayot Upamecano and Adrien Rabiot had been each pressured to sit down out of coaching on Wednesday, the workforce’s final session earlier than going through Morocco.
And they’re mentioned to be critical doubts for the crunch conflict with the Atlas Lions, prompting a last-minute reshuffle.
Upamecano, who additionally missed coaching on Monday, has a sore throat whereas Rabiot can be below the climate.
It means Liverpool’s Ibrahima Konate and Youssef Fofana are on standby in case the first-choice duo can not get well in time.
Konate and Fofana had been drafted in in opposition to Tunisia whereas William Saliba, Matteo Guendouzi, Eduardo Camavinga and Jordan Veretout are various choices for Deschamps.
Rabiot has performed in all 5 matches whereas Upamecano was rested for the defeat to Tunisia after qualification for the knockout rounds was already secured.
They each performed the complete 90 minutes of Les Bleus’ 2-1 quarter-final win over England on Saturday and Deschamps wished to maintain an unchanged XI.
Upamecano got here below criticism for his poor defending in opposition to Harry Kane all through the match.
Rabiot, in the meantime, prompted controversy by claiming Kane’s penalty miss was “justice”.
The Juventus man mentioned: “First of all, I’m not sure that it’s really a foul.
“We’ve seen hundreds of actions like that that aren’t given.
“Of course, when he’s missed, we were happy, it was justice because there was no penalty.”
France went into their title defence with out N’Golo Kante, Paul Pogba or Karim Benzema and misplaced Lucas Hernandez to an ACL damage of their opener in opposition to Australia – though Benzema might technically make a shock return in the event that they attain the ultimate.
They are but to maintain a clear sheet in Qatar – whereas tomorrow’s opponents Morocco have conceded simply as soon as, together with a penalty shootout.
That was an personal aim in opposition to Canada earlier than knocking Spain and Portugal out to change into the primary African aspect to succeed in the semi-finals of a World Cup.
Now Walid Regragui is plotting find out how to cease Kylian Mbappe and Antoine Griezmann – however striker Youssef En-Nesyri might be buoyed by the news of disruption to the defence.
Originally printed as World Cup 2022: Get all the most recent news, scores and outcomes as France takes on Morocco
