Fall back with the Blues before the Euro, Jaiteh and Cordinier leave the group

Moustapha Fall, the return. Removed from the group at the start of preparation due to a tear in the thigh, the 30-year-old pivot will find the Blues this Monday evening in Cologne, where the France team will play the group stage of EuroBasket (September 1-18). His club, Olympiakos, gave the medical green light on Monday. “He will gradually reintegrate the workforce in the field to ensure his complete recovery.“, we specify, adding that the person concerned, whose return was “hoped» by staff although there was no question of it at the start,had expressed his great frustration and his wish to do everything to return and hope to participate in the Euro“. “He succeeded“His bet,” adds the French Basketball Federation (FFBB).

As one could imagine, it is Mam Jaiteh who bears the brunt of this return. The Bologna player was little used in the preparation matches and the two matches counting for the 2023 World Cup qualifiers. Vincent Collet held “to thank (him) and congratulate (him) for his exemplary behavior throughout the preparation period. I had recently warned Mam of Mous’ potential return. His seriousness and self-sacrifice were a real contribution and an example for all of us.“, declared the national coach, who will therefore be able to count on his three rounds for the European championship, Rudy Gobert, Vincent Poirier and therefore Fall, who will bring his size, his deterrence and his ability to play with his back to the basket. Double champion of France, with Chalon-sur-Saône and Asvel, Fall is also a boost in terms of experience. If he has only 21 selections, the tall 2.18m staker participated in the conquest of silver last summer, at the Tokyo Olympics. They are eight out of 12 in this case within the current group.

The Blues in full for the Euro?

Note that if the Blues are now reduced to 12, the staff still reserves the right to modify the list until the day before the first match against Germany, Thursday, as Fiba regulations authorize it. . It must be said that two of the 12 players are back from injury, Fall therefore, but also Andrew Albicy, who had the opportunity to play during the defeat in Bosnia and Herzegovina on Saturday (96-90 AD), he who returned to the blue ship after treating a strain. Frank Ntilikina and Victor Wembanyama were not so lucky. As for Nicolas Batum and Nando de Colo, their absence had been planned for a long time. They must return for the summer of 2023.

Last but not least, coach Collet had previously cut another player, also playing in Bologna like Jaiteh, Isaïa Cordinier. In the role of defensive watchdog on the external positions, it is therefore the Manceau Terry Tarpey who passes the cut, even if the two basketball players have a different profile. “I would like to congratulate and thank Isaïa for her exemplary attitude throughout this preparation. He has shown unfailing commitment by working extensively with us, in an irreproachable state of mind. We had to make a delicate and difficult choice essentially dictated by the complementarity», Explicit Vincent Collet, who should therefore logically use Elie Okobo as second back, with Thomas Heurtel, Albicy and Théo Maledon in the lead. Unless there is a new (bad) surprise in the hours, the days to come…