Ousmane Dembele's PSG Rest Explained Before Manchester City Match

Last Thursday, Paris Saint-Germain's official accounts announced that both Nuno Mendes and Ousmane Dembele would take a rest, and although this drew criticism, there is a good reason for the decision.

When fans learned the situation, they were visibly upset, mostly with PSG's No. 10 forward, as they do not agree that Ousmane Dembele has so many rests throughout the season.

Granting a small rest to Ousmane is not something new. He has now had two since the start of the season, yet people do not seem to get used to it.

PSG faced Le Mans FC last Saturday (3-1), and as it was a match of lesser demand, the coach Luis Enrique decided that it would be a good moment to rest Dembele and Nuno Mendes.

The justification was clarified by the coach himself; for them, the individual physical health of the players will always be more important, especially if it is about key players like the ones previously mentioned.

The newspaper L'Equipe also came out to comment on the topic. For a sports newspaper, it is worth considering whether Dembele's short rest period really allowed him to recover physically and be ready for the upcoming, demanding Champions League commitments.

Ousmane Dembele had a strong participation in the past international break with the French national team. The team led by Zinedine Zidane was subjected to a lot of pressure, and according to what L'Equipe says, under his command, the training sessions were much more rigorous and intense than when Didier Deschamps directed them.

"The coaching staff believes that Ousmane needs, above all, before the important matches, to recover and arrive fresh, capable of maintaining a high level of effort for 60 or 70 minutes," Dembele's entourage stated.

With a rest period of only four days, people are beginning to notice the Frenchman's apparent urgency to demonstrate that he is still as fast and accurate on the field of play as he was in his prime.

In fact, his close associates say that this situation is not all smooth sailing for Dembele, who appears to be quite frustrated with the ups and downs.

Due to his history of physical demands and injuries throughout his career, Luis Enrique did well to anticipate a possible injury. Here, the important thing is to reflect on whether these few days were enough for the Frenchman to be in optimal condition for the next match against Manchester City on Wednesday.