“Nine months later, I’m back here.” Lucas Hernandez shared his happiness this Thursday at a press conference to be reunited with the France team. Two days before a match against Ireland (8:45 p.m.) counting for the Euro 2024 qualifiers, the defender returned to this difficult period following his rupture of an anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee last November.
Hernandez was injured in the Blues’ first game at the 2022 World Cup, against Australia. “Very complicated times” followed. The 2018 world champion did not play an official match again until August 12, with PSG, which he joined this summer from Bayern Munich. “At first you fall into a hole, you can’t see the exit,” Hernandez said. With the help of my friends, my family, my brother, my children, you bounce back more easily.”
“When I started running again two and a half months after surgery, that’s when I started to see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Hernandez continued. The Parisian defender nevertheless assured that he remained “100% confident of being able to return here one day to the France team”. From Clairefontaine, Hernandez said to himself “very very happy to be able to be here, very proud”.
Able to play in the center of defense or on the left side, Lucas Hernandez has started all four PSG matches this season. “I think I still have a little left to really be 100%, but I feel better and better,” he said. Thursday, if Didier Deschamps counts on him, he will play on the same pitch as at club, at the Parc des Princes, against Ireland.