Real Madrid and French national star Kylian Mbappé believes he has finally overcome a nagging knee injury suffered last December.
On Monday night, Mbappé, 27, told French reporters that he experienced “a lot of frustration, a lot of anger,” and even some “anxiety at one point” while dealing with a persistent knee injury.
“I had reached a stage where I didn’t know what was wrong with me,” Mbappé said. “I didn’t go through that period in the best way. I wasn’t the happiest player in the world. But I’m happy now because it’s truly behind me. It’s all gone.”
That wrapped the story in a nice bow — until The Athletic‘s Guillermo Rai and Mario Cortegana reported a bombshell on Tuesday.
“Kylian Mbappé’s knee injury was misdiagnosed after Real Madrid medical staff performed an MRI scan on the wrong leg back in December,” Cortegana and Rai relayed.
The report cited an anonymous source to confirm that Mbappé “continued playing after that initial erroneous scan despite having signs of inflammation in his injured left knee.”
Real Madrid classified Mbappé’s injury as a knee sprain, but a proper scan performed on Dec. 31 on his left leg revealed a partial posterior knee ligament tear.
Sports business reporter Joe Pompliano weighed in on X (formerly Twitter): “This story makes no sense and, if true, actually makes Mbappé look just as bad. Doctors usually confirm the injury site multiple times before placing a large knee coil over the injured knee during an MRI. If the wrong knee was scanned, that means the doctor messed up, and Mbappé was so checked out that he didn’t realize they put the device on his uninjured knee.”
Cortegana and Rai reported that Mbappé’s pain would vary daily. Some days, he felt “fine” and played well; other days, he was “in pain.” They wrote, “Another source familiar with Mbappé’s diagnosis said his knee was not showing signs of instability, so it was not deemed a risk for him to be playing when not in pain.”
Mbappé recently commented on “false things” circulating about his injury, though he didn’t specify which speculation bothered him and was untrue (via ESPN FC).
Mbappé left Paris Saint-Germain in May and completed his free transfer to Real Madrid that July. His first season with the club saw Mbappé lead LaLiga with 31 goals. So far this season, Mbappé again leads LaLiga with 23 goals in 24 appearances. Los Blancos are second to Barcelona by four points at the top of the LaLiga table.
Mbappé will continue to work back into form with the French national team ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup this summer. France will play an international friendly against Brazil at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., on Thursday, March 26, and another international friendly against Colombia in Landover, Maryland, on March 29.
France and Mbappé won the 2018 FIFA World Cup over Croatia. They narrowly missed out on repeating as World Cup champions, losing on penalties to Argentina in the 2022 FIFA World Cup final despite Mbappé’s hat trick. Mbappé’s consolation was winning the tournament’s Golden Boot.
Seventy-nine days out from the 2026 FIFA World Cup, France has the third-best odds, while ESPN FC has Les Bleus second to Spain in its power rankings.
