Adrien Rabiot -

UK Sports Pics / SIPA

Rather relaxed at the time of approaching his first press conference of the week, Didier Deschamps had bad news to announce in the preamble that his laughing mood could not suggest: if contact with Juve, Adrien Rabiot will not be there. party with the France team for the first friendly, against Ukraine.

"He will have to respect the health protocol imposed by the Italian authorities, who ask for five days of isolation with two tests carried out.

He will join us no later than Thursday, so he will not be able to attend the match against Ukraine.

But he should be there for the next two.

"

Juventus players and management were placed in isolation on Saturday, a procedure that does not prevent them from training or playing, but prohibits contact with the outside, after two cases of Covid-19.

These cases do not concern players, or members of the technical and medical staff.

"The Covid takes up a lot of space"

The coach, who does not plan to replace the last-minute absentee for Wednesday's friendly, has already assimilated the Covid variable to the management of his group.

"We have had a little experience with the situations that we had to manage in September [Mandanda and Mbappé packages]", he tempers.

And to continue, solemn.

“We are not immune to having cases, even when taking maximum precautions.

I won't hide from you that the Covid takes up a lot of space, certainly too much, but we have to live with it.

We are obliged to ensure that we respect the various protocols in order to do things as they should.

There is no zero risk and it probably won't be any different in November.

We hope that in March the health situation will have improved.

We are on the short term.

Even the medium term, we don't know, we don't have the answers ”

On the Ukrainian side, six players have already been placed in isolation because of the appearance of new cases in the workforce of Shakhtar Donetsk and will miss the trip Wednesday to the Stade de France.

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