Returning to the Commanderie after France’s victory over Slovakia (0-1), Gaël Givet discusses Saturday’s match against Caen. He also talks about Cédric Carrasso’s injury. “It hurts everyone, mentally above all,” he says.

…ON CEDRIC CARRASSO’S INJURY
It was a huge shock. He was in top form and was having a great start to the season. He brought a lot to our performances. So it’s another blow for the team. It hurts because he was a real asset and we need him in this difficult time.

…ON STEVE MANDANDA
Steve will replace Cédric and I’m sure he’ll do it well, but this injury has hurt everyone, mentally above all.
I’m sure Steve will get off to a flying start, as we’re obliged to get a good result from this match. We know what needs doing against Caen – we have to win and that’s it. We have to give everything to get the win.

…ON CAEN-OM
It’ll be a hard-fought match as both teams need the win but we’ll jut be focused on our own game and not worry about the opposition.
We’ll have to be as relaxed as possible and avoid choking, while keeping in mind it will be a tough match. Good results come from a strong mentality so we need to be right in our heads.

…ON THE FRANCE TEAM
It’s always really important to win. We did that on Tuesday in a tough match and I think it was a good performance. It augurs well for our match against Italy (September 8) even though it will be a very different match than against Slovakia.
The A and A’ squads weren’t together for very long, so it went well. It could have been tougher had we spent more time together, as there were quite a few of us.