Ligue 1 – Many absences in Nice against ASSE, including executives

AS Saint-Étienne travels to the Côte d’Azur this Friday evening, at 8:45 p.m., to face OGC Nice. This match counts for the fifth day of the French Ligue 1 championship.

The start of the season has not been good for the Niçois. Qualified for the Europa League, OGC Nice naturally aims to join the race at the top of the table this season but is slow to get going. With a total of four points in as many games, this is not the expected start for Franck Haise’s men. For the 120th anniversary of their club, the Aiglons will obviously want to take the three points against AS Saint-Étienne.

Present at the pre-match press conference this Wednesday morning, Frank Haise mentioned the complicated start to the season for the Niçois as reported by The Team : “The four points are the reality of the moment and it’s quite logical. What I like is that we’re making progress. But we have to go even further. We’re missing points compared to what we had hoped for. But not compared to what we did, I don’t think we could have had more, or maybe a draw in Marseille, but we should have scored…“

Before that, the Nice coach had given an update on his squad. A team still deprived of several players including key players like Gaëtan Laborde, Terem Moffi, Hicham Boudaoui or even Morgan Sanson : “There are no major changes. For Morgan (Sanson, ankle), I had hoped that he would be able to resume team training this week, but that won’t be the case. We won’t have him back right away. I think it will be more like October. Hicham (Boudaoui, knee) has resumed re-athletic training, it’s progressing rather well. We’ll see in the two and a half weeks left before the break if we can get him back. We have a little doubt about Issiaga Camara, he has a tendon problem. He was in treatment yesterday (Tuesday). He should still train today. And Terem (Moffi, knee) and Gaëtan (Laborde, knee) are still missing..”