Morocco faces a big blow ahead of the FIFA quarter-final against France as Saibari has been ruled out due to injury. Morocco has so far played exceptional football in the competition and will be eyeing a win against one of the best teams in the World Cup so far – France.
Saibari, who recently joined Bayern Munich from Dutch champions PSV Eindhoven on a five-year deal for a reported fee of 50 million euros ($57 million), has been one of the standout players at the World Cup.
He scored in each of his team’s three group games and converted the winning penalty in the shootout as Morocco beat the Netherlands in the last 32.
However, the attacking midfielder came off early with a hamstring problem in the 3-0 win against Canada in the last 16 and has not recovered since.
Soufiane Rahimi, an out-and-out striker, came on for Saibari in that game and scored Morocco's third goal.
The African side is looking to avenge their 2-0 defeat against France in the semi-finals of the 2022 World Cup.
"We absolutely want to win the game tomorrow, so we will not listen to people who say it doesn't matter if we go out now," said the coach, who took over from predecessor Walid Regragui in March."
Tomorrow we will try to get to the semi-finals. I don't like this sentiment that we have already done well and anything else is a bonus," added Ouabi, who said he watched the 2022 meeting of the sides as a fan on television.
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