France squad will travel to England for friendly despite Paris terror attacks

All 23 members of the France squad – including Lassana Diarra and Antoine Griezmann – will fly to England for Tuesday’s friendly at Wembley, an official from the French football federation has said.

Diarra’s cousin Asta Diakite was one of the 129 people who died in the Paris terror attacks on Friday night.

Griezmann’s sister, meanwhile, managed to escape the mass killing at the Bataclan theatre, where 89 people died after it was stormed by armed terrorists.

Both were playing in France’s friendly win over Germany at the Stade de France on Friday – which was also targeted by terrorists – while the attacks took place.

France coach Didier Deschamps offered his players the chance to pull out of the squad for Tuesday’s match against England in London if they did not feel up to it.

But despite being directly affected by the attacks, both players have remained with the squad and will fly to England for next week’s friendly, according to France’s team media officer Philippe Tournon.

    ‘All the players are coming,’ he said.