By RYAN TOLMICH
Every four years, the World Cup unites soccer fans across the globe with a display of top international sides consisting of the world’s best players. However, the injury bug has claimed yet another one of the game’s biggest stars: Franck Ribery.
The 31-year-old French winger has officially been ruled out of the France squad due to back injury. Ribery had recently been on an individual training program away from his teammates and had not featured in any of France’s two pre-tournament friendlies. News of Ribery’s exclusion was confirmed by the French Football Federation on Friday.
“Friday morning, a drive further into the race and sprints showed a sharp pain that forced him to stop the session,” the federation said in a statement. “An MRI taken at Rambouillet hospital in the early afternoon confirmed the sudden worsening of his condition and led the medical staff to conclude his sustainable inability to train and play.”
The news of Ribery’s injury comes just weeks after the UEFA Player of the Year had announced that this would be his last World Cup.
Joining Ribery on France’s injured list is Lyon midfielder Clement Grenier, who will also miss the tournament due to an injured groin. Grenier and Ribery will be replaced on the squad by alternates Morgan Schneiderlin and Remy Cabella.
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What do you think of this news? How will France fare without Ribery? What player will need to step up in his absence?
Share your thoughts below.
no one can replace mr, franck rebery……
bummer for him! come on over to MLS.
Russian captain Shirokov out also with a knee injury. Tell me again someone why the MLS schedule is a disadvantage to the US?
It’s a huge loss for France. Ribery is a monster. France will not be a contender, imo. But, I could be wrong. No one really knows.
Good riddance, douche.
I never laugh injuries but I won’t lose a second of sleep knowing that he’s staying home.
On a Freakonomics angle, the teenage prostitute business in Brasil just took a dive.
I stopped respecting this guy when he admitted to “freezing out” Gourcuff from play during the last WC. Ribery is a thug (and possibly the ugliest person I have ever seen).
Dude, he was voted the handsomest boy in Boulogne-sur-mer before his accident, that’s not very pc
Martin Škrtel has something to say about that.
Noooo!!! I love Ribery style of play, this is a big loss for France!
France will be fine. He is their best player running at people but France may be better off with Ribéry out. When he would have the ball the rest of the team tended to stand still a bit. Now they might be less predictable, with more points of attack, and more movement. Different story with Valbuena, Griezmann, Cabaye and Matuidi in the midfield.
yeah, since LD is a wuss, like the French…he should apply for a one time FIFA switch and replace Ribery…
Ha ha ha ha! So funny and original! Can you, like, submit your stuff to Conan O’Brien??? I bet he’d totally use it ’cause it’s really really funny!!!
I actually don’t see how this is funny, unless you are a Klnsmann lemming.
Bring him to the most Jewish market of MLS by next year. His image of a annoying person and glamour attitude is what MLS needs,MLS needs more barbies in order to get espn attention, world sport attention. Imagine having, ribery, balotteli, Christiano and Pepe, in MLS, that would make espn, foxsports1 follow the league every weekend since they r bad boys and arrogant stars.
They have Donovan but he doesn’t use his full Barbie potential to get MLS on espn, and that’s about it.
“Jewish market”? What the hell are you talking about?
A misguided and irrelevant reference to Ribery’s Muslim religion.
I second Dinho’s bemusement
Also, Ribery hardly qualifies as a “Barbie” in the sense that I think C.Ronaldo does.
Are the pubs already serving in El Paso?
Why stop at “ribery, balotteli, Christiano and Pepe”? Why don’t we imagine the entire starting lineup of Bayern, Chelsea, Man City, Barca, Real, PSG, Dortmund, Milan, Juventus, Liverpool, and Arsenal all playing in MLS? That would surely make ESPN, FOX, etc. follow the league.
If there were a “Group of Cupcakes and Ponies”, Group E would be in the running for it.
This is certainly good news for Ecuador. They’re going to top this group.
This sucks. I was hoping that he would really get the acclaim this time around; at 35, in 4 years, I doubt it.
Wow. Huge news! Paging Mr. Nasri!..Mr. Nasri: Line 1!
NASRI: Hello? This is Mr. Nasri.
DESCHAMPS: Is your refrigerator running?
NASRI: Uhh, hmm, let me go check…. Why yes, it is.
DESCHAMPS: You’d better go catch it then! Bwahaha!
NASRI: Why you—!
DESCHAMPS: P.S., you’re still not on the team.
Heh, ya… Nasri is toolbox. No way he is ever coming back with Deschamps there.
It’s funny that they might have to call up Nasri as a replacement.
They already called up Montpellier’s Rémy Cabella and Southampton’s Morgan Schneiderlin as replacements.
They can’t because he wasn’t called into the 30. Plus, he is toxic to the team and the coach already came out saying he wants no part of Nasri.
Injury replacements to the 23 can be anyone.
This is correct—confusing, but correct. The 23 have to be selected from the 30, but a replacement to a verified injured 23 can be anyone from the player pool.
False. They can call up anyone eligible at this point.
Maybe it’s an advantage to have a group of our players just getting through a third of the MLS season?
Definitely agree. I was always confused by the argument that mls players wouldn’t be at the same level of fitness as European players for the World Cup. Mls players will have been training for 4 months by the time the World Cup starts which should be plenty of time to get up to speed. I think that’s much more advantageous than being burnt out after playing for 10 months in 3 competitions in Europe
100% true. Anyone saying anything else has an agenda.
All the fitness, very few of the injuries and burnout.
Huge news, replacing Grenier with a D-mid in Schneiderlin and pure winger Ribery with a creative midfielder Remy Cabella is a major downgrade. France has major depth in central mid but not so on the wings. Ouch.
Should have called in Samir Nasry
Sammy Nasty? Nobodys got time for that!
Quick, someone call Landon!
+1, perfect
Wrong team, imbecile.
Wow. Big news. Major economic loss for teenage prostitutes in Brazil.
You win. (That was hilarious)
Hey, He is totally willing to fly them to him. Everything will be okay.