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PSG Rests Ousmane Dembele and No Tension With Luis Enrique
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- PSG Rests Ousmane Dembele and No Tension With Luis Enrique
PSG Rests Ousmane Dembele and No Tension With Luis Enrique
(REUTERS)
Substituted at halftime against Rennes last Sunday, Ousmane Dembele will not take part in Friday's Lille vs. PSG match, with Luis Enrique having decided to rest him until next Monday. The decision was made jointly with the Ballon d'Or winner and is not a punishment.
As he did recently with Achraf Hakimi and Willian Pacho, Luis Enrique has decided to give Ousmane Dembele a little rest, so he will not train this Wednesday or Thursday and will not take part in the Lille-PSG match next Friday. PSG announced it Tuesday evening in a short statement published on X and on its official website.
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"In agreement with the coach and the sporting management, Ousmane Dembele will benefit from a rest period over the coming days. He will resume training on Monday with the entire group," the club announced, inevitably raising many questions after the Ballon d'Or winner was substituted last Sunday following a poor first half.
On a well-known radio station, some began speculating about possible tension between Luis Enrique and Ousmane Dembele, seeing this rest as a form of punishment. But according to insider Djamel, the reality is quite different.
"Luis Enrique found him a bit physically short. Ousmane then confided that he had cut his vacation short to prepare specifically for the Super Cup, disappointed to have played only one half. Not knowing this, and aware of the frantic pace of recent months, Luis Enrique simply proposed that he take a few days to breathe and come back at 100%. A proposal happily accepted by the player!" Djamel explained on X, before adding that the Parisian coach reserved the right to repeat the approach with other players during the season if needed.
According to this source, "no problem nor any tension: the decision was made intelligently and by mutual agreement" between the coach and his player, with the approval of Luis Campos. After finishing the 2026 World Cup in the United States on Saturday, July 18, Ousmane Dembele benefited from three weeks of vacation, like the other French and Spanish internationals, but he returned a little earlier from vacation to train individually in order to be ready for the European Super Cup on Wednesday, August 12.
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The PSG No. 10, however, resumed training with the Parisian group on Monday, August 10, two days before PSG-Aston Villa, a match in which he played only the second half. Dembele had a very limited volume of play and lacked precision near the goal, but he perfectly served Desire Doue for the winning goal. A substitute four days later against Lens, Dembele played the last half-hour of the Trophee des Champions and missed all his shots, but with a more significant collective contribution this time toward the end.
Dembele then completely botched his first half against Rennes and was logically replaced by Ferran Torres at the break. The French international can rest until next Monday to best prepare for hosting Monaco on Friday, September 4. He will therefore miss the trip to Lille next Friday.
