Striker Karim Benzema has been ruled out of France's 2012 European Championship qualifier against Belarus after failing to recover from an ankle injury. The French federation said hours before Friday's game at the Stade de France that the Real Madrid forward had been ruled out after undergoing a fitness test in the morning.

Ghana coach Milovan Rajevac says Chelsea midfielder Michael Essien is putting his international career on hold to regain the form he enjoyed before sustaining the injuries that ruled him out of the World Cup. Essien injured a hamstring while playing for Chelsea last December and ruptured a cruciate ligament the following month while on Ghana duty at the African Cup of Nations.