France forward Kylian Mbappe is leaving the squad after being forced off with a knee injury shortly after scoring the winner against Turkey in their Nations League clash on Friday (September 25).

The captain received treatment immediately after scoring and briefly returned to the pitch but went down again about a minute later and was unable to continue, forcing Zinedine Zidane into a 58th-minute substitution in his first match in charge.

"Unfortunately, it doesn’t look good. I think he’ll have to go back. We’re not going to take any risks. He has swelling in the knee. It’s not encouraging, so we’re not going to take any risks," Zidane said of the 27-year-old Real Madrid player.

The French federation said Mbappe was suffering from a "knee tendon injury" and was returning to Madrid.

France won 1-0 in their first Group A1 match.

DESCRIPCIÓN DE IMÁGENES

KOCAELI, TURKEY (SEPTEMBER 25, 2026) (REUTERS – Access all)

1. FRANCE COACH, ZINEDINE ZIDANE, ENTERING PRESS CONFERENCE

2. (SOUNDBITE) (French) FRANCE COACH, ZINEDINE ZIDANE, SAYING:

JOURNALIST: “There obviously is the satisfaction of victory, of the good match that was won tonight, and also the worry for the captain, Kylian Mbappe, the scorer. Can you give us news and your feelings after this first match and this first victory? Thank you."

ZIDANE: "Well, the news is not good because Kylian will have to go home. He has a tendon injury to the knee. So, we’re not going to take risks. It's unfortunately a small worry, but he will have to return and then after that, I think we were satisfied -- for a first match in any case -- to have been able to win, to have won tonight in a challenging environment. And we are really happy with this victory after three or four training sessions. It shows good things are to come. We're going to continue to work, but now we will have to rest."

3. PRESS CONFERENCE ONGOING

4. (SOUNDBITE) (French) FRANCE COACH, ZINEDINE ZIDANE, SAYING:

"Well, we have plenty of things still to work on, but we can be satisfied after three or four training sessions together. I think we must simply tell ourselves that it's part of the normal process. And I am glad with what I have seen at any rate, the things we’ve put in place, for example, under high pressure. We’ve done well when we lost the ball. We tried to recover the ball very fast. There are things that we’ve put in place that were interesting. And above all, we kept the team’s equilibrium throughout the match. We know that we are good with the ball and we also have to be without the ball, because when we face good teams, we have to maintain the team's balance. And we did throughout the match."

5. PRESS CONFERENCE ONGOING

6. ZIDANE LEAVING PRESS CONFERENCE

7. (MUTE) STILL PHOTOGRAPH OF FRANCE FORWARD, KYLIAN MBAPPE, ON THE GROUND AFTER SUSTAINING AN INJURY

8. (MUTE) VARIOUS STILL PHOTOGRAPHS OF MBAPPE ON THE GROUND GETTING MEDICAL ATTENTION (3 STILLS

9. (MUTE) STILL PHOTOGRAPH OF MBAPPE AFTER SCORING THE ONLY GOAL OF THE MATCH

10. (MUTE) STILL PHOTOGRAPH OF MBAPPE CELEBRATING AFTER SCORING GOAL

11. (MUTE) STILL PHOTOGRAPH OF MBAPPE APPEARING TO WINCE AFTER SCORING GOAL

12. (MUTE) STILL PHOTOGRAPH OF MBAPPE APPEARING TO BE IN PAIN

13. (MUTE) STILL PHOTOGRAPH OF MBAPPE BEING HELPED OFF THE PITCH

14. (MUTE) STILL PHOTOGRAPH OF ZIDANE DURING THE MATCH

15. (MUTE) STILL PHOTOGRAPH OF ZIDANE SHAKING HANDS WITH TURKEY COACH VINCENZO MONTELLA AFTER THE MATCH