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PARIS: Paris Saint-Germain on Sunday criticized the “serious and avoidable” injuries suffered by Ousmane Dembele and Desire Doue while on international duty with the France national team.
After the PSG stars were both forced off during France’s 2026 World Cup qualifying win over Ukraine on Friday, their club sent a letter to the French Football Federation (FFF) requesting better “medical and sporting coordination between clubs and the national team.”
PSG, who will be without a hamstrung Dembele for around six weeks and Doue for some four weeks with a calf issue, are “urgently requesting a new protocol... that is more transparent and collaborative” regarding player health, they announced in a statement on their website Sunday.
The European champions said they “had provided the FFF with concrete medical information, even before the French team gathered, on the acceptable workload and injury risks for their players.”
PSG added they “regret that these medical recommendations were not taken into account by the (national team) medical staff,” as well as criticizing “the total lack of consultation with their medical teams.”
The club reaffirmed their commitment to Les Bleus, but added the “serious and avoidable incidents” must serve as a catalyst for change, particularly in the case of players “underdoing treatment for a medical issue.”
“(PSG) hope that these regrettable events will pave the way for the establishment of a new formalized framework for medical coordination, ensuring systematic, documented and reciprocal exchanges between the medical staff of clubs and the national team,” they said.
France coach Didier Deschamps said he sympathized with the French Ligue 1 champions’ complaints.
“If I were at a club, I would feel the same way,” he said, before adding: “There is no such thing as zero risk. If you leave players on the bench, you’re not taking any risks...”
The 2018 World Cup winning coach went on to defend Les Bleus’ practices.
He cited the examples of William Saliba and Rayan Cherki, of Arsenal and Manchester City respectively, whose pre-existing injuries had been announced by their clubs and who Deschamps allowed to stay at home.
“The protocol stipulates that they must come and have their injuries assessed on Monday morning (at the national team’s training camp),” he said. “I didn’t make them come.”
Deschamps also added he takes “the player’s feelings” into account when deciding to play them.
Dembele and Doue will miss PSG’s first domestic match after the international break, as well as the start of their Champions League defense at home to Atalanta on September 17.
The pair will also be doubts for the trip to Barcelona in the league phase of Europe’s top club competition at the start of October.
Following a short pre-season after playing key roles in PSG’s run to the Club World Cup final in July, Dembele and Doue had appeared in all three of the Parisian club’s Ligue 1 outings before the international break.
 

MONZA: Max Verstappen slowed McLaren’s Formula One dominance on Sunday with a phenomenal display of driving on his way to victory at the Italian Grand Prix, the fastest ever race in the sports history.

Starting from pole, reigning world champion Verstappen completed a magical weekend at Monza which included the fastest lap ever in F1 in Saturday’s qualifying by schooling McLaren pair Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri at Monza.

Red Bull’s Verstappen has little chance of securing a fifth straight drivers’ title as he still trails championship leader Piastri by 94 points with the Australian finishing third.

“It was really enjoyable,” said Verstappen who took the chequered flag in 1hr 13mins 24.325sec.

“I think we pitted at the right time and with the hard tires at the end you can push a bit more... It was a fantastic execution by everyone.

“I think the whole weekend we were all in. It was super enjoyable to win here.”

Piastri leads the drivers standings by 31 points from Norris, who finished second and would have finished third behind his teammate due to an awful pit stop had McLaren not enforced a position swap between the pair.

“I always know it’s going to be a good fight with Max and it was,” said Norris.

“But just not the speed today, not the pace of Max and the Red Bull. But it was still fun, still a good race.”

Charles Leclerc, last year’s winner and the last driver to win at Monza from pole position back in 2019, couldn’t take a podium spot for the massed ranks of Ferrari fans in the stands, the Monegasque finishing fourth.

Leclerc’s teammate Lewis Hamilton gave it his best shot after a five-place grid penalty had him bumped back to 10th at the start, charging up to sixth thanks to some spectacular driving early in the race.

But the seven-time F1 champion couldn’t push past his former Mercedes teammate George Russell and was left with another underwhelming result in his first Monza GP with Ferrari.

- Verstappen show -

Sunday’s win, which hinged on a bold overtaking move against Norris on lap four, was just Verstappen’s third of a season dominated by a McLaren car which has blown way the competition by winning all but four GPs.

But a second win in Italy this year, after triumphing in the last Emilia Romagna GP back in May, caps a historic weekend for the blunt 27-year-old.

Verstappen was forced to allow Norris into first place after a frantic start in which he appeared to forced his British rival off the track.

That move caused Norris to call Verstappen an “idiot” over the team radio, but he was soon back behind the Dutchman who took control of the race by passing Norris with a daring move at the chicane on lap four.

From there Verstappen sped off into the distance, developing a gap of around six seconds over Norris by the time he pitted to switch from medium to hard tires on lap 38.

Verstappen only lost two places in the pits and soon closed the gap again on the two McLarens who left it very late to pit, with Norris not heading into the box until lap 47.

That slow pit stop left Norris third, bringing back memories of the mechanical failure at last weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix which cost him 18 points in his title battle with Piastri.

But with the race effectively won by Verstappen at that point McLaren ordered Piastri to let Norris pass so that another case of bad luck didn’t cost him.

It was a gesture which caused Verstappen to chuckle on the Red Bull team radio as he was left to cruise around the track on his way to a hugely impressive victory.