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In another world, Kylian Mbappe may have headed the ball home as he leapt in the air to meet Antoine Griezmann’s outswinging delivery and jogged away beaming at scoring the first European Championship finals goal of his life.
But just after connecting with that cross in the 86th minute of France’s 1-0 win against Austria in their opening Euro 2024 group game, his face smashed into the shoulder of opposition defender Kevin Danso.
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The bridge of his nose immediately began to swell, blood pouring from his nostrils and splattering his white shirt. As France’s medical team attended to him, trying to stem the flow, Mbappe sneaked a quick glance up to the stadium’s big screen to assess the damage. His nose was visibly crooked.
“He’s not well — he’s in bad shape,” France manager Didier Deschamps, who spoke with Mbappe immediately after the narrow victory as the striker lay on a massage table in the changing room, said brusquely post-match. “He’s got a banged-up nose, that’s for sure. It looks complicated. That’s the negative point of the evening for us.”
Team doctor Franck Le Gall diagnosed a broken nose, with his prognosis confirmed by X-rays at a Dusseldorf hospital.
“Any ideas for masks?” Mbappe wrote on X in the early hours of Tuesday, a couple of hours after the final whistle, accompanied by a smiley face emoji with a drip of sweat. The replies were filled with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle images, a nod to his nickname ‘Donatello’.
At least Mbappe could see the funny side as he left that hospital buoyed by the news he would not, for now, require surgery.
Des idées de masques 🎭😅 ?
— Kylian Mbappé (@KMbappe) June 17, 2024
Instead, the France captain will receive treatment over the next few days and will be fitted with a mask to enable him to return to a tournament many expect his team to win.
The protective device will act like a cast on a broken arm and stop the bone from moving. It is a common solution, one which England captain Harry Kane and former Chelsea striker Diego Costa turned to when they suffered the same injury.
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In determining the next step after the collision with Danso and whether surgery is required immediately, doctors would have considered whether Mbappe could still breathe through his nose and how much pain and swelling he had suffered around his face. It is not just the fracture to consider but the amount of inflammation, which affects the person’s ability to inhale.
Even before the injury, Mbappe had endured an eventful evening in Dusseldorf.
There had been doubts about his fitness heading into the Euros after he missed three training sessions during the preparation period. “The most important thing isn’t necessarily physical — the most important thing is mental,” said Mbappe in his press conference on the eve of the Austria game. “How far am I prepared to go to win? I’m ready to do anything.
“I’d rather have my head than my legs. If you have both, it’s better, and I hope to have both. What’s certain is I’ve got my head and now we’ll see if I’ve got my legs, too.”
He had laughed and joked with his father, Wilfried, on the pitch upon the team’s arrival at the stadium and had started the game brightly, drawing fouls, interchanging well with left-back Theo Hernandez and getting into good goalscoring positions. But there were signs of rustiness when it came to his finishing.
In the 10th minute, Mbappe broke free down the French left but did not connect well with his shot. He worked his magic in the 38th minute, this time down the right, forcing Max Wober to head the ball into his own net for what proved the only goal of the match but, in reality, the Austrian centre-back inadvertently did all the work for him.
As Mbappe walked off the pitch at half-time, he grimaced, shouting “Merde” (‘S**t’). Another chance had gone begging as Griezmannn sent a looping pass over the top, but the now Real Madrid striker could not control it first time with an outstretched boot and goalkeeper Patrick Pentz eventually smothered the ball.
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The most shocking miss, however, came after the interval when Mbappe bore down on Pentz, one on one, in the perfect position to set the stadium alight, only to curl his shot wide of the far post. French fans inside the stadium were left aghast.
Mbappe has still not scored at a European Championship across five appearances in two tournaments, despite having 18 shots worth 2.5 expected goals. Even his penalty in France’s shock shootout loss to Switzerland in the round of 16 at the previous Euros three years ago was saved.
To add insult to injury, Mbappe was booked for cynically returning to the pitch without referee Jesus Gil Manzano’s permission having received treatment for his nose for a second time. France would have been playing with 10 in his absence as they waited to replace the striker. Deschamps tried to placate the referee, aware that caution may come back to haunt his team. If Mbappe is booked again between now and the end of any quarter-final, he will be suspended for France’s next game.
But the question is when Mbappe will be back on the pitch.
It seems a matter of days as opposed to weeks but, in tournament time, even hours can prove costly.
France have a crunch match against the Netherlands, which could well determine who wins Group D, on Friday, and that may well be deemed too soon for Mbappe’s return, especially if he is still receiving treatment. He will be assessed daily in the build-up to that fixture in Leipzig with a nation back home collectively holding its breath.
Deschamps does have plenty of attacking options as alternatives, even if none carries the same threat as his injured captain.
The head coach started Marcus Thuram alongside Mbappe here and turned to veteran striker Olivier Giroud when his star player was withdrawn in the final minute of the 90. He also has Paris Saint-Germain forwards Bradley Barcola and Randal Kolo Muani at his disposal.
| Group D | MP | W | D | L | GD | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Austria | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 6 |
France | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
Netherlands | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
Poland | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | -3 | 1 |
Yet none of them can replace the talismanic figure in the No 10 shirt and Mbappe’s absence would be keenly felt.
“The French team will always be stronger with Kylian,” added Deschamps. “If the news doesn’t go our way, we’ll fight without him. But of course, Kylian is Kylian, and when he is in any team, the team is inevitably stronger.”
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For a brief period on Monday night, as he sat on the turf clutching his face with blood staining his shirt and the bridge of his nose swelling markedly, Mbappe must have contemplated whether his second European Championship might be over before he could truly make his mark on it.
Instead, aided by a protective mask, the striker will believe he is not done quite yet.
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(Top photos: Getty Images)