Bacary Sagna has labelled Eric Cantona 'stupid' regarding his comments about Didier Deschamps' squad selection for Euro2016.

With the tournament now just days away, France defender Sagna has leapt to the defence of his boss by addressing the situation in which Cantona suggested Deschamps was racist for leaving Karim Benzema, Hatem Ben Arfa and Samir Nasri out of his Les Bleus squad because of their North African heritage.

However, Manchester City's Sagna has slammed the Manchester United legend for even uttering the words as the final 23-man squad was Deschamp's personal decision for the good of French football, and not based on race, religion or creed.

"It's a choice, it's free speech," said Sagna. 'It doesn't matter what race you are: French, North African or Chinese. The world is like this.

"He [Deschamps] is not a racist. I don't think there are any problems.

"It is stupid of him [Cantona] to say such things just before the Euros are about to start. It is bad timing.

"It's just such a pity there are always comments like this just before tournaments like the Euros."