The holidays only lasted a few days. Returning from Qatar on Monday December 19 and cheered by 50,000 people at Place de la Concorde, some members of the French team were back in training two days later. This is particularly the case of Kylian Mbappé, who created the surprise by going to the Camp des Loges 72 hours after the final. Since then, he has resumed collective training and will be available against Strasbourg on Wednesday evening, on behalf of the 16th day of Ligue 1.
The same day, but several hundred kilometers away, Antoine Griezmann was also back at the Atlético de Madrid training center. At first, he trained alone but he quickly found the rest of the group to hope to be in the match against Elche on Thursday.
The pioneer goalkeepers of the recovery
Another player had resumed on Wednesday, December 21, in this case Steve Mandanda. The Stade Rennais goalkeeper was established during Tunisia-France (1-0) on November 30, but did not return to the field afterwards. Doorman n ° 1 of the Breton club, he could be a starter for the trip to Reims on Thursday.
The goalkeepers were the first to return to competition. Alphonse Areola with West Ham and Hugo Lloris with Tottenham were both on the bench on Monday’s Boxing Day against Arsenal and Brentford respectively but they didn’t play a single second.
At Arsenal, William Saliba made a good return to training on Friday, December 23, but was not part of the group against West Ham. For the other Premier League players, Ibrahima Konaté should return to training with Liverpool (the day after his club’s 3-1 victory over Aston Villa) and Raphaël Varane has not yet found his partners in Manchester. United. Monday, during the press conference, his coach Erik ten Hag indicated “hope for a quick return” but did not give a date, while the Red Devils play this Tuesday evening against Nottingham Forest.
All back in Ligue 1
Ligue 1 resumes on Wednesday after a six-week break. All the players have found their club and some could even play. In addition to Kylian Mbappé at PSG and Steve Mandanda in Rennes, Axel Disasi and Youssouf Fofana returned to La Turbie, AS Monaco’s training center on Monday. The two players could already be fit to play tomorrow against Auxerre (5 p.m.).
The Marseillais Matteo Guendouzi and Jordan Veretout also found their teammates at the Robert-Louis-Dreyfus center. OM receive Toulouse on Thursday at 9 p.m. Will the two internationals make their debut on the pitch? Igor Tudor will decide it.
What about the Spanish, Italian and German championships?
In the other three major European championships, the players have not all found their clubs. If Ousmane Dembélé did his first post-World Cup training with FC Barcelona on Monday, Jules Koundé is not expected until Wednesday. On the side of Real Madrid, no date has been advanced about Eduardo Camavinga and Aurélien Tchouaméni, while Karim Benzema, package before the first match against Australia has returned to training since Saturday December 10 .
In Italy, Olivier Giroud and Théo Hernandez are announced for a return on December 30 to AC Milan while Adrien Rabiot is expected on December 29 or 30 at Juventus, knowing that Serie A starts again on January 4. On the other hand, the recovery dates for French internationals playing in Germany, whose championship does not resume until January 20, are not known. To see, therefore, when Benjamin Pavard, Dayot Upamecano and Kingsley Coman return to training at Bayern Munich, and when Randal Kolo Muani will find his partners at Eintracht Frankfurt.