Kylian Mbappe set to start against Poland during UEFA Euro 2024

Didier Deschamps hinted that Kylian Mbappé would start in the starting lineup for France's Tuesday matchup against Poland if the country wants to win Group D in the UEFA Euro 2024. Although he knew they needed to improve the Netherlands' performance against Austria to win pole, the France manager stated his captain was "raring to go."

For France's final FIFA World Cup group-stage match against Qatar, where they were runners-up, Deschamps had the opportunity to rest a number of players, but he insisted that he was in no shape to take this match lightly. On Monday night, Albania's loss to Spain sent both his team and the Netherlands to the round of 16. Since injuring his nose during the opening match of Euro 2024 against Austria, Mbappé has not appeared in any games.

The France manager said that, “It would be an ideal situation to rest players – in Doha I did it maybe excessively but we knew that we were already getting that top spot for the round of 16 – but this is ­different because we don’t know that we will finish top. I don’t like looking at the drawing board thinking: ‘If this happens, if this happens. It is a little bit bothersome to not have scored after all of the chances we have had, especially as we tend to control the game a lot more than our opponents do.”

Didier Deschamps gives update on the nose injury of Kylian Mbappe

Mbappé has trained extensively since scoring twice in a contest on Saturday that was played behind closed doors. Ousmane Dembélé is expected to be replaced by him, and Deschamps reported that Mbappé's nose swelling had decreased. 

He said, “The reason he is wearing the mask is because he needs to protect his face in case certain instances occur,” he said. “It is maybe hindering but it’s something you need to get used to. It’s like when you have the 3D glasses, though now we have masks that are quite thin, as thin as possible.”