By Craig McWalter
April 11 2002

The Liverpool striker has not played for his country since November and the April 17 friendly at the Stade de France will give him a late chance to convince Roger Lemerre he is worthy of a place in the squad. Juventus defender Lilian Thuram is back in the 19-man squad after missing last month's win over Scotland.

Lemerre has also called up Alain Boghossian and his Parma team-mate Johan Micoud, while dropping Christian Karembeu, Claude Makelele and Eric Carriere, and Fulham striker Steve Marlet.

He chose Barcelona defender Philippe Christanval over Bayern Munich's Willy Sagnol, even though Sagnol has recovered from a knee injury that sidelined him for France's last match.

The match against Russia is France's penultimate friendly on home soil before the World Cup in South Korea and Japan.

France play Senegal in the opening game of the tournament in Seoul.

Frenca squad in full: Fabien Barthez, Ulrich Rame; Vincent Candela, Philippe Christanval, Marcel Desailly, Frank Leboeuf, Bixente Lizarazu, Mikael Silvestre, Lilian Thuram; Alain Boghossian, Youri Djorkaeff, Johan Micoud, Emmanuel Petit, Patrick Vieira, Zinedine Zidane; Nicolas Anelka, Sylvain Wiltord, Thierry Henry, David Trezeguet.