Aston Villa's Lucas Digne pulls out of France squad with ankle injury

The 29-year-old was initially called up by Didier Deschamps to replace AC Milan's Theo Hernandez, who reported for duty with a torn adductor muscle.

The French Football Federation announced on Monday that Digne would take Hernandez's place as Les Bleus prepare to meet Austria and Denmark in League A Group 1.

However, the left-back has made a lightning-quick exit from the squad after sustaining an injury in his right ankle, and he has been replaced by Rennes' Adrien Truffert.

Digne has played every minute in the 2022-23 Premier League for Aston Villa, who also saw Boubacar Kamara called up to Deschamps's squad before he was sidelined by a knee injury.

The severity of Digne's issue is not clear at present, but the ex-Everton man's withdrawal is yet another blow for Deschamps, who is working without a wealth of experienced names this month.

Captain Hugo Lloris dropped out alongside Hernandez on Monday with a thigh problem, while the likes of Kingsley Coman, Anthony Martial, Presnel Kimpembe, Paul Pogba, N'Golo Kante, Karim Benzema and Lucas Hernandez are also absent.

France failed to win any of their opening four Nations League fixtures in June and will be relegated to League B if they suffer defeat to Austria on Thursday night.