Moussa Niakhaté and Mohamed Ouédraogo out for Lens vs OL

OL travel to Lens this Friday at 20:45 missing Moussa Niakhaté and Mohamed Ouédraogo. Niakhaté is out with hamstring issues after international duty with Senegal, while Ouédraogo will be sidelined for around six months after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee.

Nicolas Tagliafico is also not expected to make the trip. Paulo Fonseca explained the international break left the squad short of bodies: “We could only work with six players.” He added: “The first week was devoted to rest… in the second week we worked on important things with the team,” including sessions with the reserve youngsters. Tagliafico, who was due back from Argentina on Thursday afternoon, misses the matchday group.

For Lens, Fonseca plans an unusual defensive pairing with Felix Bacher and Ruben Kluivert, having trained defensive situations with Clinton Mata, Kluivert and Abner, and worked midfield links with Coco Tolisso, Tyler Morton and Tanner Tessmann.