Kylian Mbappé is back. Masked on the pitch since his broken nose suffered during the French team’s first match at Euro 2024 against Austria (1-0) on June 17, the captain of Les Bleus appeared without protection or apparent discomfort – and always full of mischief in his answers – at a press conference on Sunday evening. The 25-year-old player gave an update on his health on the eve of the round of 16 of the European Championship in Germany against Belgium (Monday 6 p.m.). He says he thought about withdrawing from the rest of the competition two weeks ago.
“At the time, I didn’t think about much, I didn’t really know what was happening to me. I didn’t feel like my nose was broken. It was when I looked at the opposing goalkeeper’s face that I told myself something was wrong. Afterwards, returning to the locker room and with everything that is happening around, it’s a little scary. I told myself I was going to go home. I saw myself in the mirror, I think it was a bad idea (smile, editor’s note)”, explained Mbappé. Doctors quickly said that the patient could wait until the end of the Euro to have surgery.
Mbappé returns to the insult to Lewandowski
The man who finally opened his goal tally in the Euro, thanks to a penalty converted in the third match against Poland, confides his happiness at playing: “I’m happy, I’m here, it was difficult. There was a lot of information, appointments, I didn’t sleep much, almost for two days. It was complicated. I couldn’t play against the Netherlands, it was very difficult to stay on the bench. Thank God I was able to play again against Poland and I’m very happy.”.
Mbappé is also amused by the outburst he had (he shouted
“son of a bitch…”) after receiving Robert Lewandowski’s hand in the face. “The moment you play with a broken nose and you don’t have surgery, you become a target, but I think Lewandowski didn’t do it on purpose when he touched me and the reaction was more of an instinctive reaction to pain. Unfortunately, there are a lot of children watching the matches, so we will have to try to control ourselves in the future.”replied the new Real Madrid player.
