by Basit Jamiu
Hugo Lloris, former French goalkeeper, has finally cleared the air on the allegations that he was part of the side that prevented Karim Benzema from participating in the World Cup.
The Real Madrid player caught a thigh injury on the eve of their first World Cup match. New facts revealed that he was fit to play at the knockout stages but was prevented from joining the team.
The Tottenham goalkeeper who recently announced his retirement from international football pointed out that he had no hands in the team’s selection and can not influence who gets into it.
Lloris also said it is ridiculous for him to request that Benzema be sidelined considering what he had achieved in the past months with his stellar performance.
“There are a lot of things that have been said, which are either false or ridiculous: the atmosphere was very good before he left, and very good after. But we would all have preferred that the Ballon d’Or winner, when we see what he has brought since his return, could be with us. He’s still a major asset,” Lloris said.
“To say that we would have pushed for him to leave is completely false, and I do not see how we would benefit from that. He was essential for 18 months, he helped us win the Nations League, his return would only have been positive. It is really dishonest to claim that some of us were in favour of his departure. When you approach a World Cup, you want to do it with your best players,” he added.
Lloris described how Benzema left the team after he sustained a thigh injury, he said it all happened so fast.
“For Karim, we were all a little surprised. What we as players experienced with his departure is this: you train in the evening, he gets injured, you go to bed, and the next day when you get up you are told that Karim has left. Everything happened so quickly. It was presented as a medical package, and we, the players, discovered it in the morning, in a period when something was happening almost every day,” he said.
Before his retirement from international football, the 2018 World Cup winner made 145 appearances for France and was part of the side that won a couple of international trophies.
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