Injured Benzema out of France Euro qualifiers

AP, Monday 3 Oct 2011

France coach Laurent Blanc says the team will be without injured striker Karim Benzema for its last two European Championship qualifiers against Albania and Bosnia-Herzegovina this month

Karim Benzema

Blanc says he’d hoped France’s top scorer would be over the abductor muscle problem he picked up in a match last week before the Bosnia-Herzegovina match “but the nature of the injury is such that we can’t get him back.”

Top of Group D, France has a one-point lead over Bosnia. It will host Albania on Oct. 7 and Bosnia on Oct. 11.

France needs four points from the matches to win the group and qualify for Euro 2012.

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