France striker injury big news for England ahead of Euro 2012 opener
Published:France are 8/5 to win their opening Euro 2012 game with England, but their chances have suffered a blow with the news that Loic Remy has been ruled out of the tournament.
Allthough Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema is most likely to lead the line for Laurent Blanc’s men, Remy would have undoubtedly had a big role to play.
Remy has been Marseille’s top scorer in Ligue 1 for the past two seasons since signing from Nice and also featured in seven of France’s ten matches during qualification for Euro 2012.
However, he has failed to recover from an abductor muscle injury suffered when playing for Marseille and has been removed from France’s provisional squad despite Blanc giving him as much time as possible to recover.
The news is a bigger blow for Blanc, who has had little luck with injuries in recent weeks with London duo Bacary Sagna and Younes Kaboul others to have been ruled out of the tournament by injury.
Furthermore, when naming his preliminary 26 players that had to be cut to 23, Blanc opted to pick just four strikers, with Remy in this list and the likes of Bafetimbi Gomis and Kevin Gamiero ignored.
Therefore, France could be short of striker options at Euro 2012, with Benzema and Arsenal target Olivier Giroud the only out-and-out frontmen likely to be taken.
Another development could be that Benzema is an even better bet than before to be Euro 2012 top scorer, given that he plays for one of the most fancied teams and is almost a guaranteed regular starter.
Benzema is 16/1 to win the Euro 2012 Golden Boot and it is 66/1 for the double that he is the top scorer and France win the tournament.
