Ibrahima Konate still training separately but not showing ‘discomfort’

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Ibrahima Konate has remained with the France national team this week despite arriving with a quad complaint, with the defender training separately from the rest of the group. Konate remains in doubt for France’s first game of the international break on Friday as he did not take part in their full training session on Wednesday.

Ouest-France state that Mbappe is deemed “more likely to play on Friday than Konate,” though Didier Deschamps stressed to reporters on Monday that he would take “no risks” with his selection. That Konate has remained with his national team points to the fact that his issue is manageable and that he has the potential to feature during the break, but Liverpool will be keeping in close contact.

Despite question marks over his form, Konate has started all but one of Liverpool’s 10 games this season, missing only the Carabao Cup win, to play the fourth-most minutes of any Red. For now, though, France are rightly managing his quad issue and it remains to be seen if he can play any part in their bid to move closer to a place in next year’s tournament.