Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema has scored six goals in eight league matches, but France coach Didier Deschamps insisted on ignoring him and not calling him back to wear a cocktail shirt.
Deschamps said in a documentary shown on the French TF1 channel that Benzema's recall was "a sporting decision."
"I simply believe that his call-up is very good for the team," he said. "I look at things from the best of France and what his shirt means."
The 31-year-old French-Algerian star has not appeared with world champions since 2015 following a "sex tape" scandal allegedly leaked to his teammate Mateo Valbuena.
Benzema did little to improve the relationship with Deschamps, but made matters worse when he criticized him in an interview in the summer of 2016 in which he said that the coach complied with racial pressure when he did not call him to the national team in the European Cup that year.
"Some people are saying things that they do not appreciate, unforgettable or unforgivable. At the moment, I felt that a red line had been crossed," he said in a previous television interview.
Deschamps concluded that "he chose the French players because they are French without regard to the player's religion and color."