KYLIAN MBAPPE has trained for the first time, giving a major boost to France ahead of their match with England.
The two sides are set to go head-to-head in the World Cup quarter-final on Saturday evening.
The French star missed training earlier this week, leading to English hopes that he might not be fit for the match.
Mbappe has starred at the tournament so far, having scored five goals and assisted two in his four appearances.
The PSG forward’s performances helped France top their group and beat Poland 3-1 in the round of 16.
England manager Gareth Southgate has been working with his number two Steve Holland on a plan to stop the dangerous forward.
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The Three Lions are hoping that Manchester City defender Kyle Walker will be on his best form in order to nullify the 23-year-old.
Ten years ago Holland managed to come up with a set-up that stopped Lionel Messi in the Champions League semi-final between Chelsea and Barcelona.
Messi failed to score in either tie as the Blues progressed to the final in which they went on to win against Bayern Munich.
Holland said: “In 2012, with the Champions League semi-final between Barcelona and Chelsea, there are a handful of players on the planet that you need to consider special attention to.
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“Messi has been one and probably still is. You’d have to put Mbappe in that category.
“We do need to look at trying to avoid leaving ourselves in situations where he is as devastating, as we’ve all seen.
“I remember a conversation with Jose Mourinho about it when he was with Real Madrid, they were playing Barcelona and had Cristiano Ronaldo.
“Dani Alves would be the right-back for Barcelona and flying forward in attack, Jose would play a ‘soldier’ against him to try to stop him but then you don’t get any threat from your team from the soldier as you’re just stopping somebody, not actually hurting them.
“Then he would try to play Ronaldo against him, one against one, because Alves was fantastic going forwards but maybe not as good defensively.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
