Will William Saliba play for France tonight? Arsenal defender eyes full World Cup debut

Arsenal have 15 representatives at the World Cup, only Manchester City, Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain have more, so it feels as though there is at least one Gunner in action every day of the tournament. Well, on Tuesday, it is the turns of William Saliba and France to commence their campaign, facing Senegal at MetLife Stadium. However, will the Arsenal superstar be involved?

William Saliba injury latest

Following the Champions League Final in Budapest, it was reported that Saliba had suffered a back injury a few weeks earlier, playing through the pain to conclude the club season. However, manager Didier Deschamps was quick to dissuade any fears, having this to say:

"William is fine and will be managed. If he had needed to play tomorrow, he would have played."

Didier Deschamps on Saliba's fitness

These comments were made on 3 June, the day before France were actually defeated 2-1 by Côte d'Ivoire in a friendly at Stade de la Beaujoire. Four days later though, Saliba did start as les Bleus beat Northern Ireland 3-1 in Lille, replaced at half time by Maxence Lacroix. This strongly suggests he will be good to go now that the serious business is about to begin.

Is William Saliba expected to play for France tonight?

Despite having racked up 184 appearances across four seasons for Arsenal, Saliba, somewhat surprisingly, has just 32 international caps to his name. At the last World Cup in Qatar, towards the very start of his career in North London, he saw only 27 minutes of action, coming off the bench during a dead-rubber group game against Tunisia at Education City Stadium.

Now though, Saliba is very much one of the first names on the team sheet. He played all 570 minutes as France reached the semi-finals of Euro 2024, as well as both legs of the Nations League quarter-final victory over Croatia, missing the final four tournament due to injury.

France's centre-back depth chart at the World Cup

As was the case for that aforementioned friendly win over Northern Ireland at Stade Pierre-Mauroy last Monday, Saliba is set to partner Dayot Upamecano at the heart of France's defence. Ibrahima Konaté was the first-choice, but his poor performances at Liverpool have seen him fall down the pecking order, with Lucas Hernandez and new member of the squad Maxence Lacroix in reserve.

France team news and predicted lineup

Didier Deschamps is expected to name an unchanged lineup against Senegal compared to their final warm-up friendly. One of the key question marks is at left-back, where Théo Hernandez got the nod for the visit of Northern Ireland, but Lucas Digne could come back in. Now 35 years old, N'Golo Kanté is poised to play a key role this summer, albeit is not forecast to be a starter.

In attack, France might just have the best options of any team on the planet. Michael Olise, Ousmane Dembélé and Désiré Doué aren't a bad trio, especially considering they have Rayan Cherki, Maghnes Akliouche and Bradley Barcola waiting in the wings. Spearheading their forward line, Kylian Mbappé requires just two more goals to surpass former Arsenal man Olivier Giroud's all-time national record of 57, very much expected to achieve this during the group stages, possibly even on day one.

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