Bakayoko, Martial miss out as France names squad for upcoming qualifiers

France announced Thursday its 24-man squad for a pair of upcoming World Cup qualifiers, and among the notable omissions were in-form Manchester United attacker Anthony Martial and Chelsea ball-stopper Tiemoue Bakayoko.

With a wealth of options, Les Bleus gaffer Didier Deschamps was hamstrung by several tough decisions, with the inclusion of Marseille's Dimitri Payet over Martial among the most dubious. Lyon stud Nabil Fekir also misses out.

Moussa Sissoko's selection over Bakayoko - the latter who has formed a potent midfield partnership with N'Golo Kante at Chelsea - is also sure to raise a few eyebrows.

Here's a look at the squad for the Oct. 7 trip to Bulgaria and the visit from Belarus three days later:

GK: Alphonse Areola (Paris Saint-Germain), Hugo Lloris (Tottenham), Steve Mandanda (Marseille)

DF: Lucas Digne (Barcelona), Christophe Jallet (Nice), Presnel Kimpembe (Paris Saint-Germain), Laurent Koscielny (Arsenal), Layvin Kurzawa (Paris Saint-Germain), Djibril Sidibe (Monaco), Samuel Umtiti (Barcelona), Raphael Varane (Real Madrid)

MF: N'Golo Kante (Chelsea), Blaise Matuidi (Juventus), Adrien Rabiot (Paris Saint-Germain), Moussa Sissoko (Tottenham), Corentin Tolisso (Bayern Munich)

FW: Kingsley Coman (Bayern Munich), Olivier Giroud (Arsenal), Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid), Thomas Lemar (Monaco), Kylian Mbappe (Paris Saint-Germain), Dimitri Payet (Marseille), Florian Thauvin (Marseille)