France captain Kylian Mbappe has received criticism for snubbing the upcoming UEFA Nations League games against Israel and Belgium despite being fit to play for Real Madrid.
The 25-year-old suffered a muscle injury a month ago but returned to the pitch as he came off the bench in the Champions League loss at Lille last Wednesday.
In his squad announcement on Thursday, France gaffer Didier Deschamps left Mbappe out of the squad, saying he lacked preparations, after playing less number of matches.
The forward also started the Los Blancos’ game against Villarreal on Saturday.
“Either you’re injured, and you don’t play with your club and you’re not called up in the national team,” former France international Maxime Bossis said French publication L’Equipe on Monday.
“But when you come off the bench in the Champions League and you start a league game, it makes things fuzzy. He’s a special player. We’ve known that with Michel Platini, when we still wanted him with us when he was injured.”
In a video released by the French Football Federation (FFF) on Monday, Deschamps said: “Kylian embodies a lot of things… The interests of the clubs and the interests of the national teams inevitably diverge.
“We must also remember that the employer is the club, not the federation.”
Mbappe’s situation is more dicey as the former Paris St Germain player is the France captain after being handed the armband ahead of Antoine Griezmann, who announced his retirement from international football last week.
France, second in Group A, face Israel in Budapest on Thursday and travel to Belgium next Monday.
