Ousmane Dembélé, the 28-year-old forward for Paris Saint-Germain, had to leave the match against Ukraine this Friday evening (2026 World Cup qualifiers) after coming on as a substitute at halftime for Désiré Doué (who had suffered a calf injury). Dembélé himself suffered a hamstring injury and will therefore miss the remainder of the matches and leave the national team camp. The same applies to 20-year-old midfielder/forward Désiré Doué.
“Désiré Doué and Ousmane Dembélé will not remain at Clairefontaine. The outcome was expected for the former Barcelona player, who suffered a thigh injury. The 20-year-old midfielder, who suffered a calf injury on Friday and was substituted at halftime against Ukraine (2-0), will also be sent back to his club, PSG,” reports L’Equipe.
We suspected as much for Dembélé, who will undergo an MRI scan soon, hoping the results aren’t too serious. As for Doué, national team manager Didier Deschamps had given rather reassuring information. The next match is coming up quickly, this coming Tuesday against Ukraine. It could be a simple precaution (which would be great news…), but there is also concern that the injury might be more serious than initially thought. We eagerly await the results of the tests, hoping they are relatively positive.
