French squad left stranded in foggy Faroe Islands

A sizable section of the French team was fogbound on the Faroe Islands yesterday, forcing them to spend another night on the archipelago after their World Cup qualifier.

Those stuck included goalkeepers Grégory Coupet and Mickaël Landreau, players Eric Abidal, Jean-Alain Boumsong, Bernard Mendy, Vikash Dhorasoo, Jérôme Rothen and Djibril Cissé and the team staff. Other, including Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira, left after Wednesday's 2-0 victory.

"Being stuck for a day on the Faroe Islands because of this thick fog creates the charm of life in a group. It would have been good for all of the players to be here," France coach Raymond Domenech said.

Chelsea's Claude Makelele has hinted he may have played his last match for France. The midfielder told some of his team mates after the qualifier that he was quitting international football, the sports daily L'Equipe reported on Thursday.

The French Football Federation has refused to comment on the severity of the knee injury suffered by Louis Saha on Wednesday. The Manchester United strikerwas replaced in the eighth minute in Torshavn by Cissé.

A spokesman for the FFF said: "Louis has already gone back to Manchester. He will see with his club what the next stage is."