Wesley Fofana finally has his say about his unexplained World Cup walkout

Eight months have passed since Wesley Fofana hastily departed the 2019 World Cup in Japan, heading for home following France’s opening round win over Argentina, a match he didn't feature in. He refused to talk at the airport before he left, suggesting he would bide his time before telling his version of events. 

Now he has decided to speak up, giving Midi Olympique his reaction to damaging claims made last September by an unnamed French staff member. “Wesley is the only one who knows he’s hurt. Or rather, thinks so.”

Whatever the reservations held within the French camp about the midfielder, the truth was the 32-year-old didn’t get to play for his club Clermont until November 30, long after the World Cup had ended. 

“I don’t know who was spreading this false information and I’m not trying to find out,” he told Midi. “Many people talk and talk too much, but I’m someone who believes in karma a lot. One day it will backfire on these people. We’ll see what fate has in store for them.”

Was there an injury? Of course there was. “I had partial rupture of the quadriceps. Part of the fibres, about 10 per cent, were still hanging on at the bottom, at the knee. Each time I ran, part of these remaining fibres jumped. 

“It was as if each time I accelerated, I would get a new tear. It was immediately painful, so I had to go through surgery to cut all the remaining fibres and stop these tears repeatedly. Now I have the muscle off the bottom and much higher in the thigh.”

Relecting on the time of his sudden exit from Japan, Fofana said he resented how the injury had gone undetected by the France staff but he has since moved on. “I resented them… from the start, this whole thing was badly managed by everyone, but it's a thing of the past. I don't blame them anymore.”