In a huge blow to Paris Saint-German (PSG) ahead of their UEFA Champions League Round of 16 fixture against Bayern Munich, star forward Kylian Mbappe has now been ruled out of the clash. This is because of a thigh injury he sustained during the club's 3-1 Ligue 1 win over Montpellier on Wednesday.
While post the match, PSG head coach Christophe Galtier had said that he wasn't too worried about the Frenchman's injury, later the club confirmed that he has been ruled out for at least three weeks. Notably, the 24-year-old limped off the field in the first half of the match after he missed two penalties in two minutes.
"He took a knock to the back of the knee or the back of the thigh, so we'll see," Galtier had said after the match.
"I'm not too worried. It's a bruise or a contusion, we don't know yet," he had said.
"With the run of matches we don't want to take risks with a very busy fixture list, but it doesn't appear that serious."
PSG were knocked out by Real Madrid in Champions League last season
It is pertinent to note that PSG were knocked out of the UEFA Champions League by Real Madrid last season where they the La Liga greats came back from behind to stun them in the second leg despite their talisman Mbappe scoring in that game. The French side would definitely not want a repeat of the last season.
The positive for PSG though will be the form of Lionel Messi who seems to have found his missing mojo after a slow start to his professional career in Paris. The 35-year-old led Argentina to a World Cup win in Qatar in December last year and also found his name on the scoresheet in the team's most recent fixture against Montpellier. The goal was Messi 697th in Europe's top-five leagues which took him past Ronaldo's career which has stagnated at 696 with his decision to sign a contract with a Saudi Arabian club Al-Nassr.