Lucas Digne missed five matches for Aston Villa last month due to an ankle injury.
The left-back returned to the pitch in his side’s 4-1 defeat to Newcastle United towards the end of October and started for the Villans in their latest victory over Manchester United. He got his name on the scoresheet against the Red Devils.
Digne’s injury setback forced him to miss September’s international break with France. After overcoming the injury, he was hoping to make it to Les Blues’ squad for the 2022 World Cup.
Unfortunately for the Aston Villa player, Didier Deschamps decided to leave him out for the FIFA tournament. The national team manager has admitted he understands the 29-year-old’s pain, but he had a reason not to take Unai Emery’s man to Qatar.
Deschamps has revealed he will use four-man defence at the World Cup, which is why the defender had to be overlooked.
“I didn’t just use a three-way system but because of the structure of the squad, the chosen option is not this one. It will be a four-man defence. It’s always a long thought,” he said, as quoted by FFF.
“After what we achieved, there were a lot of discussions with my staff following the exchanges with the players as well. We have achieved very good things in this system but we have also been in difficulty.
“Even if we managed to reverse complicated situations, we were often out of balance and I know only too well that in competition, that is not going to make us win. If you are not solid… You will have to defend better but not to the detriment of the offensive animation.
“The system brings choices in the structure of the list and different players. Jonathan Clauss is one of the disappointed and other players are also tonight, I am thinking in particular of Lucas Digne. I can’t do anything to ease their pain. These are sporting choices even if they are very difficult humanly.”
Digne will be disappointed with Deschamps’ decision since he also failed to make it to the France squad for the 2018 World Cup.
