Arsenal Defender Joins List of Injury Doubts on International Duty - Report

Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny has picked up a thigh injury during a training session with the France international team.

The severity of the injury is yet to be disclosed by national team coach Didier Deschamps but early reports from L'Equipe suggest the Gunners defender is a doubt for Friday's friendly game against Australia and Tuesday's World Cup qualifier on Tuesday against Finland.

It is suggested both Koscielny and Real Madrid centre half Raphael Varane were forced to withdraw from training on Tuesday and did not participate on Wednesday.

In response, Deschamps called 18-year-old St Etienne defender Kurt Zouma into the France squad - the teenager's first call up to the senior national side - suggesting the Arsenal's defender's injury could be severe enough to rule him out of both games.

Koscielny is one of three Premier League stars to struggle in training in the build-up to the final two games of the World Cup 2014 qualification campaign. Manchester United striker Robin van Persie is also a doubt having missed training sessions this week with a toe injury.

The Holland international suffered the knock during United's Champions League clash with Shakhtar Donetsk, but managed to play 90 minutes three days later in the 2-1 win over Sunderland.

Holland coach Louis van Gaal has opted to allow van Persie to sit out of training this week in order to ensure they injury wasn't further aggravated, but the striker is pessimistic the knock will have healed in time for qualifiers against Hungary and Turkey.

"I got an enormous stamp on my toe and I really thought it had been broken, but luckily a scan showed it was not," van Persie told reporters.

"I played on Sunday (the 2-1 win over Sunderland) but the injury has not got better."

Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Moussa Dembele also picked up a worrying knock ahead of Belgium's qualifiers against Croatia and Wales. The 26-year-old was forced to limp out of a training session with his ankle heavily bandaged on Wednesday, leaving his participation in games over the next five days in severe doubt.