It looks as though France will be without one of their top young players when they open the European Championship against England on Monday.
Midfielder Yann M'Vila will likely miss the match as he recovers from a sprained ankle in France's friendly against Serbia on May 31. "His progress is good but we do not want to aggravate the injury," team doctor Fabrice Bryand told L'Equipe. "We are not optimistic for the 11th."
The 21-year-old who plays for French club Rennes established himself as key player in France's top division, even earning rumors of a move to English side Arsenal.
Fortunately, France seems to have two players returning who could fill the void left by M'Vila. Midfielder Blaise Matudidi and Alou Diarra are both making progress in their recovery from injury.
Diarra went down with a knee injury that was not as serious as first thought. "He suffered a slight inflammation of the tendon behind the right knee, but it is going well," Bryand said. "Yesterday, we did not take any risks because we were training on a synthetic pitch, but he was initially going to train."
In other Euro news, Greece coach Fernando Santos proclaimed that his squad no longer faces the pressure of repeating their performance of 2004, when they shocked the world to win the tournament.
Santos, who took over for coach Otto Rehhagel in 2010, says this is a different team than in 2004 and they shouldn't be compared. ''I have a different team ... I didn't replace Mr. Rehhagel in 2004 but in 2010,'' Santos said. ''Mr. Rehhagel wrote a golden page in Greek football history. And he got Greece to three major tournaments. But every coach has his own methods. Everyone must respect that Mr. Rehhagel had his own philosophy and I have mine. So comparisons are pointless.''
In fact, only three members of this year's squad were on the team in 2004, while nine current members were still in school eight years ago.
