The Real Madrid striker missed the World Cup with a muscle injury, but there are doctors who say he could have played in the final stretch
For iProfessional
01/07/2023 – 1:02 p.m.
The journalist Daniel Riolo has revealed in the French media RMC Sport that the injury suffered by striker Karim Benzema days before the start of the World Cup in Qatar was not the only factor that prevented him from playing the tournament.
Two days before France’s debut in the tournament, the news broke that the French coach, Didier Deschamps, had decided sideline the Real Madrid striker due to an injury to his left thigh. However, according to Riolo, there were other reasons that led to the player’s departure, in the midst of the tense climate that reigned in the team’s concentration.
The problems with his team date back to June 2021, when Benzema returned to be part of ‘Les Blues’ after the extortion scandal against the soccer player Mathieu Valbuena in relation to a sex video that involved him and that kept him away from the team for five years. national.
Benzema’s reinstatement was not to everyone’s taste, with midfielder Paul Pogba standing out among the less enthusiastic. According to Riolo, it was Deschamps who failed to “manage the egos.”
Human rights heat up the atmosphere
Even before suffering the injury, when the team was already in Qatar, an episode took place that further heated the atmosphere, when the footballers were divided on the issue of the human rights, particularly on whether to support members of the LGBTQ+ community and the migrant workers who built the stadiums.
“It was a bit hard for Lloris to have to be involved in this. They spoke, they wrote a letter and Benzema said: ‘Are we here for that? Do we have to express ourselves on these issues?’ The players who, culturally, were not in tune with the demands that we talked about so much, they were not very in favor of doing that, which created a first little tension at that moment,” the journalist said.
The departure of Benzema from the French team causes doubts.
Could he have played the World Cup?
However, it was the handling of Benzema’s left thigh injury, suffered two days before the World Cup, that really widened the cracks within the group. The soccer player, who suffered from muscular overload, insisted that he could go out on the field, arguing that he knew his body. According to Riolo, Benzema’s demands annoyed “some a little.”
Based on the verdict of doctors consulted, the journalist suggests that the attacker could have played in the last phases of the World Cup and questions Deschamps’ idea that “you have to be prepared from the first game.”
“The photos that circulated on social networks were analyzed by sports doctors. They told me it was a form of relapse and that playing with him in the round of 16 was a risk, but that it could have been in the bench and even go in in case of extreme necessity. But in the quarterfinals he would have been fully operational,” he underlined.
Added to these comments are the criticisms of Benzema’s agent, Karim Djaziri, who attacked the ‘Les Blues’ coach a week after the final was played. “I consulted 3 specialists who confirm Benzema’s diagnosis: he could have been fit since the round of 16 to at least be on the bench! Why did you ask him to leave so quickly?” Djaziri tweeted on December 26.
Meanwhile, some players like Kylian Mbappé, Antoine Griezmann, Hugo Lloris and Olivier Giroud “were not unhappy” with Benzema’s quick and premature departure, according to the insider.
“There were executives who did not dislike Benzema’s departure, because he took up little space. Griezmann’s position changed completely if Benzema was there or not. It is the Benzema-Deschamps story around this World Cup. We really took him for a fool and Deschamps He lied to us from A to Z,” Riolo concluded.
Benzema – who was awarded the Ballon d’Or last October – announced his final retirement from the national team after France lost to Argentina in the final in Qatar. Benzema has played 97 games with France, scoring 37 goals and winning one title, the 2021 League of Nations. His presence in big events is reduced to one World Cup and three Euro Cups. His time with the national team was interrupted between the end of 2015 and the middle of 2021 due to the extortion scandal in the ‘Valbuena Case’.
