Martial form wins France recall

Anthony Martial's stunning Premier League form for Manchester United has earned the forward a France recall.

Martial has scored in four consecutive Premier League games for the first time, with his recent performances earning United's Player of the Month award for October.

And he has been further rewarded for an upturn in his performances with a place in the France squad for their Nations League clash against Netherlands and a friendly with Uruguay.

"It's been a while since he's been in the French team, with good periods and more difficult periods," said coach Didier Deschamps of Martial's return to the international fold.

"What he is doing in Manchester is closer to what he is able to do regularly, in terms of investment and efficiency. He is still a young player but who, I hope, is seeing the importance he has taken in Manchester in recent weeks.

"He has some ups and downs. He is able to be very good and also to be much less good. It depends only on him, he can develop a lot more, he has to do it, and that must change a lot of things.

"He will have to fight a little against this, it's a little bit in his nature, he has to fight against it to pass the course and have the regularity of a whole season, or even several seasons."

Aymeric Laporte is again absent despite Barcelona centre-back Samuel Umtiti missing out through injury, with Adil Rami and Mamadou Sakho among those preferred to the Manchester City defender, but team-mate Benjamin Mendy returns.

Deschamps, who led Les Blues to World Cup glory at Russia 2018, has also left out players including Atletico Madrid attacker Thomas Lemar and Arsenal striker Alexandre Lacazette.

France squad in full: Alphonse Areola (Paris Saint-Germain), Hugo Lloris (Tottenham), Steve Mandanda (Marseille); Lucas Digne (Everton), Presnel Kimpembe (Paris Saint-Germain), Benjamin Mendy (Manchester City), Benjamin Pavard (Stuttgart), Adil Rami (Marseille), Mamadou Sakho (Crystal Palace), Djibril Sidibe (Monaco), Raphael Varane (Real Madrid); N'Golo Kante (Chelsea), Blaise Matuidi (Juventus), Tanguy Ndombele (Lyon), Steven Nzonzi (Roma), Paul Pogba (Manchester United); Ousmane Dembele (Barcelona), Nabil Fekir (Lyon), Olivier Giroud (Chelsea), Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid), Anthony Martial (Manchester United), Kylian Mbappe (Paris Saint-Germain), Florian Thauvin (Marseille).