PADERBORN, Germany – Kylian Mbappé participated in training with a new mask to protect his broken nose, within the France team group where only midfielder Eduardo Camavinga was missing, Sunday in Paderborn.
Two days before facing Poland, Tuesday in Dortmund for the Blues’ third match at Euro-2024, Mbappé appeared smiling, joking with Antoine Griezmann and Jules Koundé at the start of the session.
He wore a new black mask, compared to the one he had on the bench against the Netherlands, with a reinforcement on the nose and a series of hollow punches on the forehead.
He changed it during the session. A member of the staff came to bring him another black mask. The captain readjusted his protections several times.
Mbappé participated in the entire training, which ended with a classic exercise of strikes outside the area where the French attackers were not very skillful.
The Blues have only scored one goal since the start of the tournament, scored against his camp by the Austrian Maximilian Wöber.
Mbappé finished the exercise without a mask, after having thrown it for joy following a victorious strike.
Injured at the end of the match against Austria, he did not play against the Netherlands on Friday, out of caution.
But the star of the France team “very much wants to play the next match”, assured his teammate Aurélien Tchouameni on Sunday.
Mbappé has been training for several days with a mask and took part in an opposition on Saturday with the young people of the SC Paderborn club, the city of the Blues’ base camp.
In this little match, “he scored and made scores, he fully participated in the game, very good Kylian as usual,” said defender Jonathan Clauss, adding that Mbappé “is getting used to his mask, it ‘was the main objective.’
The only one was midfielder Eduardo Camavinga, who made an appearance on the edge of the pitch
