KARIM BENZEMA appears to have snubbed the possibility of a return to the France squad for Sunday’s World Cup final.
The Real Madrid star was originally named in Les Bleus’ 26-man squad and even travelled to Qatar with his team-mates.
He was forced to go home with a thigh injury, however, suffered during his side’s first training session in the Middle East.
Having already had to replace crocked Christopher Nkunku with Randal Kolo Muani, France elected not to call up a replacement for Benzema – leaving him still eligible to play as part of their squad, on paper at least.
Boss Didier Deschamps was asked after his side’s semi-final victory over Morocco if Benzema could return to Qatar to play in the final.
Deschamps sighed dismissively, before refusing to answer the question, seemingly out of contempt.
It appears that Benzema would have no interest in returning anyhow, if his latest Instagram post is anything to go by.
The 34-year-old posted a snap of himself snarling into a camera while donning a baseball cap and sporting a thick, bushy beard.
He captioned the post: “I’m not interested.”
Real Madrid team-mate Dani Ceballos replied with a flame emoji.
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While Lucas Vazquez wrote “At home” before also adding a flame emoji.
Benzema then shared a photo of him receiving the Ballon d’Or award this year – and captioned it “Good Night” so as to seemingly draw a line under it all.
Benzema was claimed to be furious with the way in which Deschamps handled his injury.
The prolific striker was allegedly particularly upset with his manager saying: “What a pity Karim that you have to leave.”
It appears that Benzema felt hurt at being pushed out and forced to leave the squad behind in Qatar.
He has since regained full fitness, and even featured in a recent friendly for Real Madrid.
The LaLiga champions would have been happy to allow Benzema to return to Qatar, having made a quicker recovery than expected.
But neither the France coaching staff, nor the player himself, seem to want that to happen.
One man that DOES want Benzema to be at the final is French president Emmanuel Macron.
According to Marca, Macron wants the forward, as well as injured duo N’Golo Kante and Paul Pogba, to be part of the group on Sunday.
Opponents Argentina have welcomed Sergio Aguero and Giovani Lo Celso into their camp – with fellow unavailable players Joaquin Correa and Nicolas Gonzalez also set to be with their group at the final.
