Sidney Govou has been called up as a replacement for the injured Djibril Cisse in France's World Cup squad.

Cisse, the Liverpool striker, was ruled out of the tournament after breaking his leg in Les Bleus' warm-up game against China last night. Govou, 26, who plays for French champions Lyon, will fly to Germany with the rest of the squad today.

Cisse suffered a fractured right tibia after 11 minutes of Wednesday night's friendly win in St Etienne following an innocuous challenge from China captain Zhi Zheng. Les Bleus coach Raymond Domenech confirmed afterwards the 24-year-old had been rushed to hospital to undergo surgery and would not take part in Germany.

Govou's call-up comes as something of a surprise as one of either Fenerbahce's Nicolas Anelka or Barcelona's Ludovic Giuly had been expected to get the nod, despite criticising Domenech following their original omission.

Govou has won 19 caps for France, scoring three goals. His last national-team appearance came on November 9, 2005 against Costa Rica. He was also the beneficiary of an injury ahead of Euro 2004 and was included for the trip to Portugal following an injury to Giuly.