Mathieu Debuchy Injury: Updates on France Star's Leg and Return

The French national team nearly saw another serious injury setback during their final World Cup send-off friendly against Jamaica on Sunday, as full-back Mathieu Debuchy left the match at halftime with a leg injury.

Debuchy played the first half of Sunday's 8-0 win over Jamaica, but was substituted off for Bacary Sagna after the break.

It was a potential nightmare scenario for the French; The Chronicle's Lee Ryder initially reported that Debuchy broke his leg. But that was quickly refuted by Goal.com's Robin Bairner, who spoke with France head coach Didier Deschamps:

The 28-year-old Newcastle standout has only been with the national team since 2011, but figures to be France's starting right-back heading into Brazil. He's started eight of France's 12 games at the position in 2013-14 entering Sunday, per ESPN FC.

France has already suffered some noticeable losses to their initial 23-man roster; midfielders Franck Ribery and Clement Grenier were both ruled out of Brazil Friday.

After seeing those two go down, the loss of Debuchy would be all the more crushing.

Les Bleus are aiming to erase the sour memories from the 2010 World Cup—in which they were unceremoniously bounced in the group stage—and the defense will be one of the main driving forces. The starting back line of Patrice Evra, Laurent Koscielny, Raphael Varane and Debuchy has only let up one goal in three pre-World Cup friendlies.

Should Sunday's injury still prevent Debuchy from playing in the opener against Honduras on June 15 in Porto Alegre, the 31-year-old Sagna is almost certainly the next option.