Laurent Koscielny hailed his France teammate, Lyon striker Nabil Fekir, while away on international duty.

In a video published by RMC Sport, the centreback praises the 23-year-old, likening his ‘small steps’ and skill to Lionel Messi. High praise indeed.

“Nabil has got huge technical skills,” he said.

“He’s a bit like Messi with his small steps when he runs with the ball in one-on-ones.

“He was slowed down a bit with his terrible injury, but he’s slowly coming back to his best level.

“He’s able to make a difference on the pitch, with a good one-on-one or with an assist or a goal.

“He’s a young player who needs to be happy in his club and his national team. He’s a very nice guy, so we hope he’ll improve to become a great player.”

Arsenal were actually linked with Fekir about a year ago before our reported interest in Alexandre Lacazette made the news in the summer, although at the time he was injured.

This season, in six Ligue 1 appearances, he’s score twice and assisted three so it appears that Kos’ praise isn’t unwarranted.

France face Bulgaria on October 5th in a World Cup Qualifier and then the Netherlands three days after.

31-year-old Koscielny has made 38 appearances for France so far during his career and, over the past couple of years, he’s become one of Didier Deschamps’ regular starters, so I’d be surprised not to see him feature during the international break. It’s good to see him getting picked regularly, as well as supporting his teammates so publicly.