• M'Vila limps off early in 2-0 friendly win over Serbia
• France start Euro 2012 against England on 11 June
The midfielder Yann M'Vila limped off after five minutes of France's 2-0 friendly win over Serbia on Thursday after receiving a heavy tackle from behind.
The Rennes midfielder was hacked down by the Serbia forward Dusan Tadic one minute into the game. M'Vila, a key player who has been a near ever-present in the France coach Laurent Blanc's team over the past two years, got back up again and carried on playing.
But moments later he made a pass with his left foot and fell down again, clutching his right leg. He was helped off the field by two of France's medical staff and replaced by Alou Diarra.
M'Vila broke down in tears when he was taken off after twisting his right ankle, leaving the stadium on crutches before returning to the bench without them in the second half.
France open their European Championship campaign against England on 11 June and Blanc is confident M'Vila will be available for that match.
The 21-year-old has played 19 times for France in a deep-lying central midfield role, protecting the defence and using his crisp passing to move the ball out smoothly.
"We can think that he will be fit for the first game," Blanc said. "His participation in the tournament is not in question."
The France doctor, Fabrice Bryand, was more circumspect, though. "The ankle is not broken. It's reassuring. We, however, need 48 hours more to say if he will recover in time for the Euro," he said.
Franck Ribéry and Florent Malouda got the goals against Serbia to extend France's unbeaten run to 20 matches.
The performance was an improvement on Sunday's 3-2 win against Iceland, where France had to come back from 2-0 down to scrape a late win.
This time France went into the break two goals ahead as Ribéry scored with a clinical finish and then Malouda fired an unstoppable shot into the top corner from 30 metres.
France played eye-catching, free-flowing football in the first half. "In the first half we did a lot of nice things offensively, that was positive," Blanc told the French TV channel TF1.
"The players were in better shape than against Iceland. We were better physically but we are not ready yet, we suffered in the last 15 minutes." Read More
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