Ivory Coast forced into late change after Clement Akpa is ruled out of FIFA World Cup

Akpa suffered the injury while training with his French club AJ Auxerre and missed the last fixture of the league season.

Christopher Operi has been called into the Ivory Coast squad as a replacement and has already linked up with the national team at a training camp in Paris.

Operi, who plays his football at Turkish club Istanbul Basaksehir, was in the Ivorian squad for the Africa Cup of Nations at the start of the year.

The defender however missed the friendly internationals in March against South Korea and Scotland due to injury.

Ivory Coast will play a warm-up fixture against France in Nantes on Thursday before jetting off to the World Cup where they are grouped with Ecuador, Germany and Curacao.