Deschamps welcomes back trio

Didier Deschamps has welcomed the return to fitness of key players as his Marseille team try to recover from a damaging form slump.

Marseille are without a win from their last four outings in Ligue 1, leaving them eighth on the table, eight points outside the Champions League qualification places.

On Friday they visit struggling Ajaccio, who are third from bottom and have managed just one win from five matches.

Marseille can call on the fit trio of Loic Remy, Stephane Mbia and Mathieu Valbuena for the trip to Corsica, but Deschamps is reluctant to throw all three straight back into the starting line-up.

“It’s good to have them back,” he said.

“They are not at their top level though. They came back to training last week. Mathieu only came back today, but obviously it’s really positive news.”

“I can’t put the three of them in the starting line-up. It’s just not possible.”

“Some of them will start, some will come off the bench. I also have to bear in mind that it’s our third game in a week. We also have another game on Tuesday and we have just played two difficult games.”

Marseille face Inter Milan away from home in the Champions League round-of-16 second leg next week, and hold a 1-0 advantage from the first meeting between the teams at the Stade Velodrome.

They appear hard pressed to feature in the competition next season given their lowly standing in the league table.

Nevertheless, Deschamps does not consider victory in the Ajaccio clash vital to his team’s hopes of securing European football.

“Is this our last chance? No, I don’t think that is the case,” he said.

“There are plenty of games after this one.”

“Our aim is to pick up points. We will see where we are after that, but we need to win after the last few results and defeats. That’s what we need to do in order to move up in the league.”