PSG duo Kylian Mbappe and Achraf Hakimi will be given 'a few days off' from their club duties after the team's 3-1 loss to Lens on Sunday night, manager Christophe Galtier has revealed.
Mbappe and Hakimi were heavily involved in the 2022 World Cup with France and Morocco respectively, with Mbappe going all the way to the final before Les Bleus lost on penalties to Argentina - while Hakimi reached the semi-finals with the Atlas lions before being knocked out by his PSG team-mate.
Both players started the shock defeat to Lens, playing the full 90 minutes, and were also involved in the previous match against Strasbourg - which may come as a surprise given how many minutes they clocked up in Qatar.
Now Galtier has claimed they need time to 'recover' having been rushed back into club action from the World Cup.
He said after the game as cited by Sports Central: 'Hakimi and Mbappe will have a few days off. 'The plan was that they could play these two games. They will now recover.'
Mbappe played seven times at the World Cup and was their best player as he smashed in eight goals, becoming the tournament's top scorer as he led them to the final, but his heroics were not enough as a Lionel Messi-inspired Argentina prevailed 3-3 on spot kicks.
Hakimi also played all seven games in Qatar, starting every single game and only twice failing to feature for the full 90 minutes.
They could not bring their impressive form at the World Cup to club level this weekend, however, as they were powerless to prevent PSG from losing their first match of the Ligue 1 season.
Galtier gave a damning verdict of his players and said he 'couldn't recognise' the team that were out on the pitch.
He said: 'I couldn't recognise my team. 'We lacked cohesion. We left a lot of space, we made a lot of technical mistakes.
.
