Briand Injured, Rémy and Luyindula Called Up

If you’re looking for the really gruesome photos of Jimmy Briand’s knee after his collision with Cedric Carrasso in training this week, you’re going to have to go somewhere else. But I’ve seen them, and you can trust me here: they are icky. It is bad.

As a result, Briand will be out for an estimated six months. After seeing the photos, I’d say that’s optimistic.

(And the people of Rennes are saying, “Gosh, thanks, France!”)

Also, from what I’m seeing, Gignac is questionable, at least for tomorrow’s game. I’m thinking I read thigh injury, but the first couple of links I’ve looked at are just saying things like “slight knock” and I’m too lazy to keep looking.

What this means is that Raymond has called up reinforcements in the form of Loïc Rémy (Nice, photo above) and Peguy Luyindula (PSG, below, right.) Both of these callups make me happy. I haven’t seen a lot of Nice games this years, but Rémy has been on my NT question mark list for awhile, and Luyindula has been one of my favorite reasons to watch PSG this year.

Am I thinking these injuries may not be a bad thing for the NT? It would be better if the team had had more time to work together, but… With a couple of Gourcuff-related exceptions, the team has been dead offensively in the past year, unable to finish off anything. And Domenech never seems to shake things up unless he has to, preferring to believe that what hasn’t worked in the past will suddenly start working in now.

So let’s hope that what we’ll be seeing here will be something new, different, and exciting. (Rather than, y’know, Ribery/Evra/Sagna sending in pretty cross after pretty cross, all of which are then cleared away by the defense.)