Ibrahima Konate has remained with the France national team this week despite arriving with a quad complaint, with the defender training separately from the rest of the group.Konate remains in doubt for France’s first game of the international break on Friday as he did not take part in their full training session on Wednesday.According to Ouest-France, Konate and Kylian Mbappe – who arrived with an ankle injury – trained separately from the main group at Clairefontaine, and managed a “light jog.”They did start the session with the team with a report from L’Equipe adding that they trained “without any apparent discomfort at the start of the session.”The pair are still “following a tailored program,” though, as they continue to manage the fitness issues they arrived at camp with.Ouest-France state that Mbappe is deemed “more likely to play on Friday than Konate,” though Didier Deschamps stressed to reporters on Monday that he would take “no risks” with his selection.That Konate has remained with his national team points to the fact that his issue is manageable and that he has the potential to feature during the break, but Liverpool will be keeping in close contact.France face Azerbaijan on Friday evening before meeting Iceland on Monday in World Cup qualifiers. Despite question marks over his form, Konate has started all but one of Liverpool’s 10 games this season, missing only the Carabao Cup win, to play the fourth-most minutes of any Red.With another intense run of fixtures across three competitions when international action concludes, Liverpool can ill afford any risks to be taken with Konate’s fitness.For now, though, France are rightly managing his quad issue and it remains to be seen if he can play any part in their bid to move closer to a place in next year’s tournament.Elsewhere, Mohamed Salah helped Egypt book their place in the 2026 competition after a record-breaking brace.