Football: Zaire-Emery, injured, will miss PSG until the beginning of 2024
Paris (AFP) – The first blow to a lightning rise: PSG's young midfielder Warren Zaire-Emery, who suffered a sprained right ankle on Saturday during his first cap in Blue, will not play again in 2023 and will miss the Parisian club's next decisive matches.
Warren Zaire-Emery seriously injured in the ankle while scoring Les Bleus' 3rd goal against Gibraltar, on November 18, 2023 in Nice © FRANCK FIFE / AFP/Archives
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The verdict was expected, it came on Monday 20 November in the evening: "sprain of medium severity in the right ankle", PSG announced in a statement. The 17-year-old prodigy "will remain in care until the winter break", i.e. until the end of the year.
The Parisian club will have to do without him for the next two Champions League matches against Newcastle, next Tuesday, then in Dortmund on December 13, decisive for qualification to the round of <>.
"WZE", who has become a key part of Luis Enrique's team despite his very young age, will also miss at least five Ligue 1 matches before returning to the pitch in 2024.
A big blow for the Parisian club, knowing that the midfielder is one of the most used players by the Spanish coach this season: he has participated in 15 of the 16 games played by PSG, all competitions combined, playing very often all the games, scoring two goals and providing two assists.
New star of the France team, Warren Zaïre-Emery was injured when he scored his first international goal, in his first cap, in the 16th minute of the match against Gibraltar - which turned into a total demonstration (14-0, a record in the history of the Blues).
After an uncontrolled tackle by defender Ethan Santos, who was sent off for this gesture, the neo-international celebrated his first goal in Blue.
'Frustrated' but 'proud'
A few minutes earlier, he had become at 17 years eight months and 10 days the youngest player to play for France since the First World War, better than Eduardo Camavinga, who was 17 years nine months and 28 days old when he made his debut against Croatia (4-2 win) in 2020.
"Frustrated that I had to leave the pitch so quickly, but also proud and honoured to have celebrated my first cap with a goal," he wrote on Instagram on Sunday, adding: "Let's get to work to get back to work as soon as possible."
He had logically left the Blues in the wake of the match against Gibraltar in Nice, drawing a line on the trip to Greece, where France will play Tuesday for the qualification for Euro-2024 its last match of the year.
Despite the absence of a fracture, "it's still a significant injury that will certainly require (...) several weeks," Les Bleus coach Didier Deschamps said on TF1's Téléfoot Sunday show.
In front of the press, before the demonstration against Gibraltar, "DD" had justified the young player's first call-up to the reigning world vice-champions.
"What he is capable of achieving at a young age shows a strong maturity at over 17 years old. Everything is going very fast for him but he can take it," he explained.
"If he's here, it's because he has everything, from the moment he does it at PSG, I believe he has the potential to do it at international level," added Deschamps, who sees in him "a candidate for the next European Championship", from June 14 to July 14, 2024, just before the Olympic Games.
For the man who has already scored a goal in blue in 16 minutes, the course is now clear: 2024.
With AFP
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