Zidane’s son misses the Algerian national team in the Saudi camp

The Algerian Football Federation reported today, Wednesday, that Luca Zidane, goalkeeper of the Spanish club Granada, has left the “Greens” camp in the Saudi city of Jeddah, due to suffering from a connective muscle injury.

The Federation revealed on its official website that Vladimir Petkovic, coach of the Algerian national team, summoned Zakaria Boulfaya, goalkeeper of the Constantine Sports Club, to compensate for the absence of Zidane, who joined Ramy Bensebaini, Fares Chaybi, and Mohamed Lamine Togay, who will be absent from the Jeddah camp due to injury.

On the other hand, Al-Khabar newspaper revealed that Riyad Mahrez, the team’s captain, was late in joining his country’s national team’s camp currently being held in Jeddah, due to a happy family event, represented by the arrival of his new baby boy.

This will be Mahrez’s fourth son after he had three daughters, two from his first wife, Rita Johal, in addition to another daughter from his current wife, Taylor Ward.

The newspaper explained that Petkovic granted Mahrez a special license to stay with his family, which made him miss the first two training sessions for the national team since his arrival in Jeddah.

The source suggested that Mahrez will be absent from the scheduled friendly match against Zimbabwe, tomorrow, Thursday, and that he will be present in the match with Saudi Arabia next Tuesday.

The Algerian national team, which recently advanced to the 2026 World Cup finals in the United States, Mexico and Canada, is preparing to participate in the African Cup of Nations next month in Morocco, where it dreams of winning the title for the third time, after holding the championship cup in 1990 and 2019.

The draw for the group stage placed the Algerian team in the fifth group, which also includes the teams of Burkina Faso, Equatorial Guinea and Sudan.