France Injury Updates, Again: Henry, Abidal, Sagnol

Good news, France fans! Thierry Henry and Eric Abidal both played in Barcelona’s “convincing” win over Real Betis. It looks like Henry, especially was determined to make a difference and prove his critics wrong.

Henry’s indifferent form has been criticised. He has been suffering from an Achilles injury, though Rijkaard said he would be “in good enough shape to be in the squad” for Wednesday. The Frenchman’s determination was evident from the start as goalkeeper Ricardo tipped a 15th-minute header over the bar. He could then only watch as a vicious Henry shot hit the post from a tight angle six minutes later.

Henry’s persistence was rewarded in the 32nd minute as he gave Barça the lead after coolly striking home from Andres Iniesta following a move that ran the length of the pitch.

Titi was subbed out in the 79th minute, and Eric Abidal played the full game. Good news for France fans on both counts.

And we have both good news and bad news on Willy Sagnol. The good news: it looks like our Willy may be coming back at last. The bad news: It doesn’t look like he’ll be NT fit before the Ukraine game. But given that back in August and September his knee was giving him so many problems that he wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to come back, we’ll take what we can get. Let’s hope that Lassana Diarra or Bakary Sagna or Francois Clerc will get us into Euro ‘08, where Sagnol will take over.