According to reports in his homeland, Laurent Koscielny was absent from France’s 2-1 victory against Serbia last night due to injury.
The centre-back, who recently missed the Gunners 0-0 draw with Liverpool, was suffering from pain in his psoas muscles and withdrawn from the squad as a precaution. We’re not quite sure what psoas muscles are but we suspect they could be related to the back problem that troubled him a couple of weeks back.
If he hasn’t been risked it suggests he may not be available for Saturday’s game against Stoke City. It’s expected that Per Mertesacker will be fit again after illness and hopefully Gabriel will return from international duty unscathed. The other option is Calum Chambers who has twice featured for the England under-21s this week.
Koscielny’s absence aside the other major talking point from Les Bleus’ game last night is the treatment of Olivier Giroud at the hands of a frustrated crowd. The striker apparently had a bit of a stinker and was booed off the pitch when substituted in the second half.
It’s been a nightmare half for Giroud who has missed a hattrick of chances and lost ball in build up to Serbia goal. Getting a few boos, too
— Matt Spiro (@mattspiro) September 7, 2015
Ideally, when a player is low on confidence like Giroud right now, fans get behind him. Patience, though, has never been France fans’ forte — Matt Spiro (@mattspiro) September 7, 2015
Not a great thing to hear given his recent travails, but we’re sure he’ll cope. After that torrid night against Monaco in February the lad went on a very important scoring run. Here’s to some bouncebackabilité.
Update…
Here’s Olivier on the subject of his boo boys: “As a striker, what you got used to on a daily basis, it is to be applauded when you score goals. When the opposite happens, it’s difficult. Everybody gets criticised one day.
“That’s not the first and surely not the last time it happens. I have the mental strength to bounce back. Now I am going to focus on working. I am everything but worried about that. I will bounce back.
“I miss some efficiency. It is like it is. I cannot focus too much on it. I have to think about the victory of the team and the good form we currently are experiencing. We did well against Portugal and it is great to confirm with a second victory for the confidence.
“Everything was not perfect but we played well especially during the first half. I am going first to enjoy our victory and then obviously I will have to correct a few things.”
Update 2…
Koscielny insists that there’s nothing to worry about on the injury front.
Koscielny confirme en zone mixte qu’il n’était pas blessé. #FRASER
— Martin Mosnier (@MM_eurosportfr) September 7, 2015
can I say a word?
fuck interlullz
I don’t speak French – can someone translate the last word in the article please?
Bouncebackability – which probably means one’s ability to bounce back after a setback to one’s back following back to back back injuries. …ok maybe not 100% sure of that, but excuse me I’m French. I hope I helped.
It’s actually Marseille slang for the rind of an orange being balanced on a dogs back without it’s knowledge.
Wait, the dogs knowledge or the orange rind’s knowledge? Because you know, only one makes sense. But then again, France.
~ Gallic Shrug ~
Haha
Non, non! You have mistranslated. It’s actually Marseille slang for the hind of Phil Brown being balanced on a dogs back without it’s knowledge.
Wounded, but maybe even blessed, which clearly he isn’t.
“Blesse” means injured, he is saying “I was not injured”; for crash
By great Shad’s beard why does this keep happening?!
Giroud with a hattrick of misses and Koscienly doing himself…..ahhhh feels like prem football never took a break.
hope there is no injury
Oli should look in the mirror and after thinking ‘you’re gorgeous’, needs to realise he plays for the Arsenal and he’s the main man up top. That should be enough start the bounce back!
Gotta admire Girouds determination. The first half of his first season, he couldn’t hit a barn door, once he finds his purple patch he will be lethal. Such a shame the France fans booed him.
Jokes aside he is a confidence player to a fault even.
Was Giroud bashing in gnome heads on the pitch to get slaughtered that way? He tried in my opinion.
It’s a friendly ffs
The last tweet is “Koscielny confirms in press area he is not injured”
Good news, hoping to see Gabriel and Kozza play together again, could be a monstrous partnership…and we can finally play a high line! ?
Giroud is clearly low on confidence. Even yesterday it looked as if he was trying too hard. Booing never helps one’s confidence. Giroud is a very emotional player, this really affects him.
Well guys he’s going to be out main striker this season so please support him rather than booing and abusing him on social media. He really does give it all and cares about the team. That will surely help him regain his goalscoring form
I didn’t see the match, but if you say he was trying too hard, perhaps it was a little of the Ramsey-itis? It always seems when Aaron tries too hard, and over thinks his role, his form drops. Hopefully HFB can get back to basics, play the role he is meant to, and start plunking them into the back of the net again.
And I love Koz. Hope to see him in the line up this weekend as well.
Glad to hear it’s nothing serious because we need to keep our defence fit when our forwards just aren’t scoring. And not scoring can be a difficult thing to get over. I remember when I was a young man, I went through a particularly barren spell. I’d try to court many different young ladies at the dances, but each time I tried to make a move I struck out. Having previously been quite the lothario I can tell you that this cut me to the quick and my confidence soon disappeared. I stopped going out. When I did meet a… Read more »
Welcome back Pete
Wow! precious god! I thought you were gay
Rambling Pete…. That was fantastic. May you ramble forever more.
Rambling pete to have his own section in the blog pls
Well…….here we go again…..the famous (arsenal) injury roller coaster ride!
At least we are in a much better position, injury wise, than last season….lets hope it stays that way.
Support Giroud!! Have your opinions, but back the players!
would you back almunia? would you?
No you drop him because he’s not very good. But we still played almunia for whatever reason without buying a better keeper. You have to back shit players because Wenger plays them…not a very good reason…
I’d say 3 months out for Koscielny conservatively.
shaping up nicely for a third/fourth position by the end of the season
Personally, I don’t like how Giroud is a lightning rod for the frustrations of many Arsenal fans, but to see if spread to his International career is just depressing, especially when Les Blues still won.
its nice to hear for a change an international manager making sensible decisions on players health lets hope hes fit for saturday could of been more worrying if it had been his hammies again
The psoas muscles are centrally located muscles on either side of the lumbar spine
Rambling pete never seized to amaze me 🙂
But somewhere this must be Wenger’s fault. It just has to be.
Wenger out!
The psoas muscles are indeed in the lower back, supporting the spine. I’m worried this could turn into another recurring problem for him like his calf was for the last couple of seasons.
And possibly a direct consequence of his recurring achilles problem? As in, compensating for his problem achilles by shifting his weight.
Beyond my expertise as a lowly medical student I’m afraid.
Cease (or better ceases) I think is the word you’re looking for. Easy mistake for a learner, our wonderful English language is ridiculous. I oftun strugul with speling 😉
Fortunately we now have a back up with Gabriel for either Per or Koscielny.
Psoas? I hardly even know ‘er!……. s
Me fail English? That’s unpossible.