FIFA World Cup: Didier Deschamps says no to Anthony Martial

| Didier Deschamps has confirmed that France will NOT call up a replacement for the injured Karim Benzema. Martial is not going to the World Cup. [@telefoot_TF1]

— centredevils. (@centredevils) November 20, 2022

According to the French tabloid L'Equipe, Martial was leading the race ahead of Wissam Ben Yedder and Moussa Diaby to be the main man for France at the World Cup. However, that wasn't to be as Deschamps confirmed the same to the French television programme Telefoot. When asked about bringing in a replacement, the head coach bluntly said "No" before adding: "Because I decided, simply."

“It’s never fun, it doesn’t make you smile. We had already lost Christopher and everyone was very sad. This is Karim. But we have a goal and the group knows very well what awaits us with a game on Tuesday."

Benzema is the latest addition to France's list of injured players, which includes N'Golo Kante, Paul Pogba and Christopher Nkunku. In fact, the latter was injured in France's final training session before the team boarded the plane to Qatar.

Martial's Manchester United teammate Raphael Varane also was on the injury list but has recovered in time to make it to the squad. Deschamps stated that the defender would be in contention for its opening game against Australia.

“Everything was under control, he was going one step further as was the case with [Raphael] Varane. In training, getting injured can unfortunately happen. It’s never the right time,” the head coach said.

France takes on Australia at the Al Janoub Stadium in its opening Group D encounter. The match will be played at 12:30 am IST in the early hours of Wednesday.