Mbappe scored and went off four minutes later, and his left knee is a problem again
France confirm a tendon injury to their captain’s left knee after the 1-0 win in Turkiye, and he misses Belgium, Italy and Belgium again.
Sep 26, 2026
Kylian Mbappe’s night in Izmit lasted four minutes longer than his goal. He scored early in the second half of France’s Nations League opener against Turkiye on Friday, pulled up straight after, and was replaced by Desire Doue before the hour. The French Football Federation has since confirmed a tendon injury to his left knee, and he has left the squad to go back to Madrid.
France won 1-0, so Zinedine Zidane’s first game in charge goes down as a win. He did not sound like a man enjoying it. “It does not look good, unfortunately,” Zidane told TF1. “I think he’ll have to go home. We won’t take risks. He overextended his knee while shooting.”
A 67th goal, then the knee went
The goal itself was classic Mbappe. Michael Olise set him up, he finished with his right foot at the Kocaeli Stadium, and it took his France record to 67. The damage was to the other leg. He overextended his left knee as he struck the ball on a poor pitch, tried to carry on, and went down again moments later.
No scan had been done by the time he flew out. Real Madrid’s medical staff will examine him in Madrid, and the club is expected to put out its own report.
The same knee as last season
That left knee is the worrying part. Mbappe sprained it in December 2025 and never really got rid of the problem. In March 2026 Real Madrid confirmed the sprain after tests by specialists in France and kept him on conservative treatment, with no surgery. He missed nine games across the 2025-26 season with knee and muscle problems.
A tendon injury is a different diagnosis from a sprain, and it is too early to say how long this one will take. But Madrid will not enjoy hearing that a knee they managed so carefully through the spring has gone again on a pitch in Turkey in September.
What he misses
For France, the answer is the rest of this window. Zidane’s side play Belgium in Brussels on Monday, three days after the Belgians won 2-0 in Rome, then host Italy on 2 October and Belgium again on 5 October, both at the Stade de France. That is three Nations League games without their captain and record scorer, and a chance for Doue, Olise and the rest of the attack to show Zidane what they have.
For Madrid, the timing could be worse. Club football stops for the international break, and their next La Liga game is at home to Villarreal on 10 October. That gives the medical team two weeks before anyone at the Bernabeu has to make a hard call. After that it gets busy: five games in 16 days, with Roma away in the Champions League on 14 October, Sevilla, RB Leipzig and then El Clasico in Barcelona on 25 October.
If the scan comes back clean, Mbappe could be back for Villarreal. If it doesn’t, the Clasico becomes the date everyone in Madrid starts counting towards.