France head coach Didier Deschamps was putting his players through their final paces for the 2026 World Cup qualifying match against Iceland on Tuesday as he tried to douse a flare-up between Paris Saint-Germain and his bosses at the French Football Federation (FFF).
PSG supremos are upset over injuries to star players Ousmane Dembélé and Désiré Doué while they were in action for France against Ukraine on Friday.
Dembélé lasted 36 minutes as a second-half substitute during the 2-0 victory in Wroclaw before being withdrawn with a hamstring problem and Doué was taken off at half-time with a calf strain.
On Sunday, PSG issued a statement calling for a new set of guidelines between clubs and the national team, which is run by the FFF.
"PSG, which monitors its players medically throughout the year and has accurate and detailed information, had provided the FFF with concrete medical data, even before the French team began training, on the acceptable workload and injury risks for its players," said a club statement.
"The club regrets that these medical recommendations were not taken into account by the French national team's medical staff and that there was a total lack of consultation with its medical teams."
Dembélé and Doué face lay-offs of six and four weeks respectively and will miss the start to their team's defence of the Champions League.
Sad about injuries
"What happened is what happened," said Deschamps. "I'm really sad about the injuries and also because the France team is losing two important players.
"We did things in a professional, progressive way, as we do with every player," he added.
"But PSG are not our opponent — clubs have never been. I've been on the other side of that fence myself. Our only opponent is Iceland."
France go into Tuesday night's clash at the Parc des Princes in Paris in second place in Group D on goal difference.
Iceland opened up their qualifying campaign for next year's tournament in the United States, Mexico and Canada with a 5-0 annihilation of Azerbaijan in Reykjavík last Friday night.
In the pool's other clash on Tuesday night, Azerbaijan entertain Ukraine in Baku
Seventh heaven for Tunisia
In Monday night's qualifiers in Africa, Tunisia became the second team from the continent to advance to the finals.
Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane struck in second-half stoppage time against Equatorial Guinea to secure the points that take the team to the World Cup finals for the seventh time.
Algeria edged closer to the next year's competition with a 0-0 draw in Guinea to leave them with 19 points from their eight games in Group G.
Vladimir Petkovic's men will advance to the finals so long as they match Uganda's result in Botswana during the next round of qualifiers in October.
In Group I, Ghana stayed top following a 1-0 win over Mali. Alexander Djiku hit the only goal of the game just after half-time at the Accra Sports Stadium.
Ghana lead the pool with 19 points from eight of their 10 games. Madagascar are second with 16 points following a 3-1 victory over Chad.
