Due to a patellar tendon injury, France captain Kylian Mbappe was forced to skip this morning’s loss to Germany in Dortmund. He wasn’t even on Didier Deschamps’ final-minute reserve list.

“Kylian was having issues from the prior training session. He strained his patellar tendon in his knee. Although it is not serious, it makes Kylian uneasy,” coach Deschamps said after France fell 1-2 against Germany on TV station TF1.

This is also Germany’s first victory over France following a run of six consecutive defeats (4 defeats, two draws). Mbappe has also been absent from a French national team encounter for the first time since the start of the EURO 2024 qualifiers.

Mbappe also came out to warm up at the start of the game. However, specialists knew at that point that the French super striker had a problem. “Look, Kylian Mbappe is getting really hot. He walks a little shakily and doesn’t seem to be as hot as normal. When Mbappe appeared on the Signal Iduna Park field during warm-up, TF1 correspondent Saber Desfarges said, “Obviously, a small foot problem from a few weeks ago has caused his knee to feel uncomfortable.”

As a result, coach Deschamps chose to leave Mbappe out of the squad for the match against Germany. “With a patellar tendon problem, Kylian cannot play.” There are just too many unneeded hazards if we allow him to continue playing. I don’t want Kyky’s situation to deteriorate more. Dayot (Upamecano) is a similar situation. He has a hamstring injury. As a result, there is no need to take any extra risks in a friendly encounter,” coach Deschamps stressed.

Previously, the French team was without Olivier Giroud after the Milan striker was injured early in the match against the Republic of Ireland.