France left one of their players behind in Dortmund's stadium following their final group match of Euro 2024 in a bizarre incident.
France drew 1-1 with Poland in Dortmund on Tuesday, surrendering top spot in Group D to Austria in the process.
Perhaps more worrying for manager Didier Deschamps and supporters was the way that France laboured against a fairly average opponent already eliminated from Euro 2024.
Advert
If anything, Poland looked the more likely side to score a late winner.
Finishing second in Group D isn't the end of the world for the 2022 World Cup finalists though; in the round-of-16 France will face the runner-up from Group E, which will be any one of Romania, Belgium, Slovakia or Ukraine.
After the match Kylian Mbappe & Co. probably wanted to get away from the BVB Stadion as quickly as possible and move on, but that was rather tricky for William Saliba.
Advert
According to L'Equipe, the France team bus left Dortmund without the Arsenal defender as his post-game anti-doping test overran.
Saliba was randomly designated for post-game anti-doping control.
France's match ended at approximately 8pm local time, and L'Equipe reported that the team bus departed the BVB Stadion just after 9pm local time.
It's understood that Saliba's anti-doping test took much longer than expected, meaning he was not ready to leave the stadium until around 10:30pm CET.
Advert
The 23-year-old defender left the ground in a van accompanied by members of team staff who waited with him.
France's base for the tournament in Germany is in the town of Paderborn, around 100 kilometres east of Dortmund.
Saliba and his teammates will now dust themselves down and begin preparations for their last-16 tie on Monday, July 1 in Dusseldorf.
Finishing second in Group D means France could face a tricky quarter-final tie against Portugal.
Topics: Euro 2024, France, Poland, Didier Deschamps, Kylian Mbappe, Football
Alex Brotherton