When Hervé Renard took charge of the France team at the end of March, well advised by his new staff, he was already imagining his line of attack for the World Cup. In a 4-3-3, she will be led by Delphine Cascarino and Kadidiatou Diani in the corridors and led by Marie-Antoinette Katoto up front. All with Eugénie Le Sommer as a joker on the sidelines, helped by fiery young people like Vicki Becho or Selma Bacha. But bad luck – others would say destiny – disrupted the coach’s plans.
In a few weeks, Hervé Renard received the final withdrawal from Katoto, who had not sufficiently recovered from his ruptured cruciate knee ligament and who did not wish to become a “burden” for his selection. Another blow: another rupture of a cruciate ligament, for Delphine Cascarino this time, and in the worst scenario since she was injured during a duel with a teammate (Élisa de Almeida) on the lawn of the Parc des Princes . A bit as if Didier Deschamps had lost Kylian Mbappé and Antoine Griezmann a few weeks before the World Cup in Qatar.
