Ibrahima Konate has returned to Liverpool after it was decided that he would not feature in France’s World Cup qualifier against Iceland on Monday.
The defender arrived at the national team’s base earlier this week, nursing a quad injury he sustained in Liverpool’s 2-1 defeat to Chelsea.
The 26-year-old initially trained by himself in the Clairefontaine-en-Yvelines region in a bid to assess how serious the injury he sustained at Stamford Bridge was.
Fears around the severity of Konate’s injury were eased on Friday night when he was named in the France squad for the 3-0 win over Azerbaijan.
But the French FA have now confirmed he will not travel for Monday’s qualifier against Iceland after talks with Didier Deschamps and the national team doctor.
After Konate was replaced by Curtis Jones in the 56th minute of the defeat at Stamford Bridge last weekend, Arne Slot said: “I don’t know if it is a big injury, but what I do know is he limped a little bit and when I asked him he said he felt his quad a little bit.
“Then, for me, all alarm bells go off because in another sprint you never know if that is going to go good.
“It was also already a substitution I had in mind, maybe for a few minutes or a little bit later, because the right centre-back had a lot of ball possession and we needed to create from that position. We all know Ryan [Gravenberch] is quite good in that.
“It might be OK that he went off early enough but it was clear I had to take him off because he was limping.”
Marseille defender Benjamin Pavard has been called up to the France squad to replace Konate.
Liverpool face Man United at Anfield next weekend, with Joe Gomez the only other fit specialist centre-back available to partner Virgil van Dijk.
Giovanni Leoni has been ruled out for the remainder of the season after undergoing ACL surgery, with Slot considering Ryan Gravenberch, Andy Robertson and Wataru Endo among his emergency options.
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