Injuries to Karim Benzema and Christopher Nkunku mean Olivier Giroud will be key for France at the World Cup, a situation he’s already experienced at Milan this season, recalls Apollo Heyes.

Les Bleus appear to be in a state of disarray only days before their tournament kicks off, with Benzema and Nkunku both being ruled out of the tournament this week due to muscle and ligament injuries.

The 2018 champions will be hoping to avoid the curse of a group stage exit often suffered by the previous edition’s victors and these injuries will only increase the anxiety.

For Giroud, this situation is not entirely new. After all, the 36-year-old Frenchman essentially booked his spot in the France squad thanks to a similar problem hitting Milan this season.

Injuries to Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Divock Origi forced Stefano Pioli to deploy Giroud week in and week out for the Rossoneri, relying on the veteran Frenchman to lead the forward line.

Giroud did not disappoint for Milan and netted nine goals in 19 games in the first half of the season, doing enough to convince Didier Deschamps to bring him to Qatar.

Now he’ll be expected to rise to the task again, leading the France attack in front of stars like Kylian Mbappe, Ousmane Dembélé and Antoine Griezmann.  

The 36-year-old already has a distinguished international career, netting 49 goals across 114 caps for Les Bleus, and he’ll be hoping to hang up his France shirt on the back of an important tournament in Qatar. 

Giroud is also only two goals behind Thierry Henry in France’s all-time top scorer rankings, giving him the chance to break the record in style.

3 thought on “As in Milan, injuries make Giroud crucial for France at World Cup”
  1. @DB: Hold your horses mate, he didn’t score at all in 2018 when France became champion.. his main role in France is probably to laying it off to the goldenboy Mbappe 🙁

    Although I would be very happy to be proven wrong, and would love to see him crowned top scorer of course 😉

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