France dealt Abidal blow

Defender out of return leg against Republic

By Elliot Ball   Last updated: 15th November 2009   Subscribe to RSS Feed

France dealt Abidal blow

Abidal: Out with leg injury

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France defender Eric Abidal is out of Wednesday's World Cup play-off second leg against the Republic of Ireland with a thigh injury.

The Barcelona left-back, who operates at centre-half for his country, played the full 90 minutes of Saturday night's 1-0 win at Croke Park but sustained the problem in his left leg and will be unavailable for the return leg at the Stade de France.

Les Bleus will also have to make do without midfielder Jeremy Toulalan after the Lyon playmaker was ruled out of the midweek fixture.

Toulalan has not recovered from the hamstring injury which kept him out of the game in Dublin and both men left France's training centre at Clairefontaine on Sunday evening and will not be replaced by coach Raymond Domenech.