KYLIAN MBAPPE got Zinedine Zidane off to a winning start with France in Turkey – and INJURED himself in the process.
The Real Madrid superstar, 27, scored the first goal of the new manager’s reign before limping off after hurting his knee in the process.
France managed to hang on to the 1-0 win against the ten-man Turks without their talisman.
Though both Zidane and Jose Mourinho, whose Madrid face Barcelona in El Clasico in four weeks, will anxiously await to discover the extent of the damage to the forward.
Zidane confirmed Mbappe “hyper-extended” his knee and said: “He’s not doing well. I think he’ll return to Madrid. We’re not going to take any risks.”
It took until the 54th minute for the French to get their breakthrough after surviving two first half scares.
Mbappe pounced when Turkey were caught playing it out from the back. Michael Olise spotted the skipper unmarked, and the forward took a touch before rifling past Ugurcan Cakir.
He instantly grabbed his left knee as team-mates ran over to celebrate, and despite attempting to play on after treatment, Mbappe eventually hobbled off grimacing in pain.
France could have been two down by that point, with the completely free Ferdi Kadioglu heading right at Mike Maignan before the Les Bleus stopper tipped another close-range header from İsmail Yuksek over.
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Ugurcan Cakir brilliantly denied Olise after some magic down the right and Adrien Rabiot blazed one from 12 yards as pressure began to mount before Mbappe’s breakthrough.
Jules Kounde nearly doubled the lead only to see his left-footed strike hit the post but it was Maignan that came to the rescue with an acrobatically save to his top left to tip Arda Guler’s wide.
Cakir got his marching orders in the closing stages for handling outside the area but Zidane’s men failed to make their man advantage count.
Elsewhere, Roberto Mancini’s second stint in charge of Italy started with a nightmare in Rome as they lost 2-0 at home to Belgium.
Kevin De Bruyne teed up Mika Godts after a counter-attack for the early opener and Dodi Lukebakio sealed the victory late on.
