At the time of counting down the players present this Friday evening, on the magnificent training lawn of the Champneys Springs hotel-spa in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, for the penultimate training session before the start of the competition for Les Bleues on Sunday evening against Italy (9 p.m., TF1, Canal +), we quickly realized that one was missing. PSG striker Kadidiatou Diani was not present. Since the day before, she has indeed felt pain in her ankle and Corinne Deacon and her staff did not want to take any risks.
This is the first blow for the French team since arriving on English soil on Tuesday. Thus, the three players who had missed the last preparation match against Vietnam (7-0), Wendie Renard, Sakina Karchaoui and Grace Geyoro, had trained normally. Les Bleues advanced towards their first meeting, before Belgium (14th) and Iceland (18th), with a full squad.
A final training is scheduled this Saturday on the lawn of New York Stadium in Rotherham at 5:45 p.m. French time. By then, Diani will be in care to hope to start. If the Parisian were to forfeit, Deacon will have two options to replace her and support Marie-Antoinette Katoto in her 4-3-3. The most logical would be to switch Delphine Cascarino to the right side, in her place, and to establish Sandy Baltimore on the left. The second option could be to replace Diani with Clara Mateo, who was very fit during the two warm-up matches.