Alexandre Lacazette declines France call up due to injury

Alexandre Lacazette was called into the French National Team as an injury replacement for Anthony Martial for their upcoming matches against Holland and Uruguay. Shortly after the call-up was announced, Lacazette turned down the invitation.

Apparently, the striker is nursing a minor groin injury. The decision to keep him home was made after discussions between the national team doctor and the Arsenal physios. Lacazette played the full 90 minutes against Wolves at the weekend and did not show any outward signs of injury. Hopefully an international break’s worth of rest will be all he needs. The Gunners have a tough schedule coming out of the break with games away to Bournemouth, against Tottenham, and away to Manchester United.

There is somewhat of a silver lining here - Lacazette staying home means that he will not be risking a more serious injury playing in meaningless extremely important international friendlies. With Danny Welbeck’s significant ankle injury last week, Arsenal cannot afford to lose any more strikers.

The call-up was Lacazette’s first since scoring two against Germany nearly a year ago. The striker was left out of the 23-man squad that won the World Cup over the summer.

When asked about the decision to recall Lacazette, French National Team Head Coach Didier Deschamps said, “He has been rather good for his club, and his scoring statistics are of a very good level. With the French team he has already done some interesting things, and some other less interesting things.”

Lacazette has scored 6 goals in 14 games for the Gunners this season and 3 goals in 16 appearances for France. I’m just going to chalk the strange part of that Deschamps’ quote up to a funky translation.