Kylian Mbappé therefore does not master the art of opposing only on lawns. This Friday, the tricolor world champion also feigned all the observers of French football behind the scenes. Forty-eight hours after having played a full match with the Blues in Croatia, having swallowed the Zagreb-Paris journey in the wake and therefore having given up on a real night of recovery, the 2018 world champion has, against all waiting, put back the cover Friday evening in Nîmes (0-4) with his club.
When Neymar, admittedly back from very distant Peru where he had played with Brazil on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, was invited to breathe, Mbappé, him, has redone the total: return Paris-Nîmes in the airs, 84 minutes in the field and late arrival under the covers. “I spoke with him yesterday (Editor’s note: this Thursday) and we took this decision with responsibility, confided Thomas Tuchel after the victory. He told me he felt good and absolutely wanted to play. We can’t do that all season, but he’s a player who can always make a difference. “
Height of a double come to reward a high level performance, Mbappé did, in fact, change the meeting. But hasn’t his love of gambling also made him switch to a love of risk? Indestructible, the machine of Bondy (Seine-Saint-Denis) completed Friday in the Gard its third match in six days. The fourth in just over a week, if we add the selection against Ukraine to those against Portugal and Croatia.
A hellish pace to which he is the only one to resist in the Parisian ranks at the start of the season where many of them, Mbappé included, have been positive for Covid-19. On Friday, Argentina’s Leandro Paredes, back from selection, only held 13 minutes before going out on injury. A lapse of time that Marquinhos, Verratti or Draxler did not even have, spent them directly from the selection to the infirmary.
“In periods of game accumulation, the players most prone to muscle injuries are often the sprinters, the explosive guys who repeat fast races,” warns a physical preparation expert. This is also the case for dribblers who fatigue can make less vigilant on the supports and therefore subject to sprains. “
Profiles which correspond to that of Mbappé, but which are not enough to make him more reckless than indestructible in the eyes of Mickaël Madar. “Young, serious, of good constitution and hermetic to the stress which favors the muscular problems”, Mbappé has, according to the consultant of Canal +, on the contrary “need of competition”. “It’s his balance,” said the ex-Parisian striker. I don’t think he took reckless risks. He wants to win titles, heal his stats, beat all records, he needs to play. “And not to relive the episode of June 2019, which had convinced him that the Golden Boot had escaped him at the expense of Lionel Messi for a few games too spent on the bench.
