Mancini jokes that France should leave Mbappe out against Italy

Roberto Mancini has jokingly urged France captain Kylian Mbappe not to risk playing against Italy in their UEFA Nations League meeting on Thursday.

The teams are preparing to face each other in the fifth round of matches in Group A of the Nations League – League A.

Mbappe, who plays for Real Madrid, was ruled out of the match by France manager Zinedine Zidane after being declared unfit because of injury.

Mancini used his pre-match news conference to suggest that Mbappe should avoid making his injury worse, while also pointing to Real Madrid’s Champions League commitments.

“I would tell him not to take a risk,” Mancini said. “He should not take a risk and he should not play tomorrow, especially because he also has the Champions League with Real Madrid.”

Mancini added that France would still have plenty of attacking quality available even without Mbappe.

“France have a lot of strong forwards anyway, and each one is better than the other,” he said.

The Italy manager also spoke positively about Zidane’s work with the France national team.

“He has started very well, he knows the players and he also has a great past as a player and as a manager with Real Madrid,” Mancini said.

“He will also have a great future with the national team.”

Italy are second in Group A with seven points. The group also contains France, Belgium and Turkey.