Karl-Heinz Rummenigge blasts the French Federation for calling up Lucas Hernandez despite injury

Didier Deschamps and his fellow coaching staff at Les Bleus are insisting on summoning the defender to their training camp, who has been sidelined the past week after suffering a knee injury, even after the Bavarians made it clear that they want him to stay in Munich.

The Frenchmen’s decision wasn’t taken lightly by anyone at Bayern’s front office as they are very much concerned about the health of the player. In an official statement from FCBayern, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge openly stated that the decision has irritated him (cf. Bild):

I am irritated by the behavior of the French Federation. I would like to note that Lucas Hernández was unable to be included in the squad for both our Champions League game in London against Tottenham Hotspur last Tuesday and our Bundesliga game against TSG Hoffenheim on Saturday.

The president also said that everyone at Bayern finds Deschamps’ statement about Hernandez staggering:

Also, the quoted statement by France’s national coach Didier Deschamps to the effect taht Lucas Hernández — I quote verbatim — is supposedly ready “to play with one leg” has surprised us very much.

The coaching staff of the French national team want their doctors to have the final say on whether the defender is fit to play for them, regardless of whatever the Bavarians say. Rummenigge further commented:

Of the four requested French national players, we are naturally making the three healthy professionals Kingsley Coman, Corentin Tolisso, and Benjamin Pavard available, but we would have expected more understanding in the case of Lucas Hernández on account of the heightened risk, just as the DFB practiced in the case of the injury-related refusal by Toni Kroos, Jonas Hector, and others.

The team doctor Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt asserted that the health condition of Hernandez would not allow him to play the upcoming matches for his national team, and hence a call-up seems ridiculous:

I bear responsibility for the health of Lucas Hernández and I say: he cannot play in the upcoming matches for the French national team; hence his release makes no sense.

France, whose training camp is set up at Clairefontaine, will face Turkey and Iceland on October 11 and 14 respectively as part of their Euro 2020 qualifiers.