Midfielder Adrien Rabiot has written to France manager Didier Deschamps saying he is not prepared to be a World Cup standby player.
The 23-year-old Paris Saint-Germain player sent an email to Deschamps saying he would not "be able to follow the training programme" sent to the 11 standbys.
A source who had seen the message said on Wednesday it was short but filled with phrases that read as if they had been written by a lawyer.
French sports daily L'Equipe wrote that Rabiot "had decided to act himself without necessarily listening to the advice of those around him".
Another newspaper, Le Parisien, suggested that it was "a thoughtful decision" that the French coaching staff "would have tried to change".
When he announced the squad last Thursday, Deschamps said: "Adrien's performances for the French team are not at all at the same level as with the PSG."
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