When is Achraf Hakimi back at PSG from the World Cup?

PSG are one of the teams that will suffer the most until all of their players are back from the World Cup. Morocco was eliminated by Kylian Mbappe's France in the semi-finals and then lost their final game against Croatia. When is Achraf Hakimi, the PSG right wing-back, expected back?

PSG superstars Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe brought down the World Cup curtain last Sunday in impressive fashion.

The World Cup final, pitting Argentina and France against each other, wasn't an exciting one until Mbappe decided to make things interesting, although ultimately it was Argentina's third triumph at the World Cup and Messi's first ever.

It was, also, one of (if not the) the greatest World Cup finals ever played.

Will Achraf Hakimi be available for PSG against Strasbourg on December 28th?

Morocco became the most surprising and overperforming team of the past World Cup. Nobody had the team led by PSG defender Achraf Hakimi reaching the knockout stages in a group featuring Belgium and Croatia, let alone the semi-finals. But that's the point they reached, also featuring in the game for third place.

That final game played by the African country meant a second-to-last-day appearance in Qatar for Hakimi, putting him nearly on par with Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe. That also means Hakimi will be given an extended period of rest that could easily see him out of team duties until almost January.

The game against Croatia for the third-place finish took place on Saturday, Dec. 17. That was four days ago and still short of 10 days. If you're wondering why 10 days exactly is an important number, well, that's because that's the number of days coach Christophe Galtier gave all of his World Cup internationals as the recovery time allowed for them after getting eliminated.

The ultimate decision of when returning players make it back to the field will come down to Christophe Galtier, and all will be allowed to stay away from Paris for at least the 10-day permission they were officially given by the staff members of the club.

Hakimi should be returning to Paris right before or after the game against Strasbourg on Dec. 28. The Morocco international, though, should never be expected to make an appearance in that game, which will entirely miss without much doubt at this point.

The 10-day period of rest added to the mini-training camp Hakimi will need to go through after joining his PSG teammates at Camp des Loges will leave him out of competitive games until, at the very least, the Jan. 1 game against RC Lens. Most probably, though, Hakimi won't feature in that matchup joining Messi and Mbappe on the sidelines until at least the second week of January.

PSG has taken a player-by-player approach and will study the fitness and mental status of all returning World Cup participants differently to not risk injuries at the start of the second half of the season.

PSG already had all of their (fit) internationals from Portugal (Vitinha), Costa Rica (Keylor Navas), and Spain (Carlos Soler and Fabian Ruiz) available and training at Camp des Loges on Monday, as we reported yesterday.