FOOTBALL: Raphael Varane, who was injured and was worried about the end of the World Cup, broke down in tears

Raphael Varane left the pitch at Stam­ford Bridge in tears and his World Cup dreams were dashed.

The Man­ches­ter Unit­ed cen­tre-back tried to inter­cept Pierre-Emer­ick Aubameyang as the Chelsea play­er ran down the left flank.

But when the French ace stepped out for a tack­le, his knee hit the grass.

Varane col­lapsed in a vis­i­bly dis­tressed look dur­ing the 1–1 draw.

The for­mer Real Madrid play­er was vis­i­bly dis­traught as he was being treat­ed by Unit­ed’s med­ical staff after learn­ing that the injury could keep him out of the World Cup.

Varane played a key role in Rus­si­a’s World Cup four years ago, when France beat Croa­t­ia in the final to clinch the trophy.

He played every minute in all sev­en games and was the cap­tain of the team, lead­ing to a goal­less draw against Denmark.

Then, in the quar­ter-final against Uruguay, he scored the deci­sive goal, his third for his home country.

But his reac­tion after stand­ing up sug­gests the dam­age is serious.

Varane buried his head in his shirt as his team­mates com­fort­ed him.

He seemed to reject his stretch­er offer to vent his emotions.

With­out Har­ry Maguire due to injury, man­ag­er Eric ten Hag had a few words with the sent-off defender.

But no words helped before head­ing straight into the tunnel.

France will start their World Cup defense against Aus­tralia in Qatar today, before fac­ing Den­mark and Tunisia in Group D.