Brentford’s departing central defender Julian Jeanvier has been named in the Guinea squad for two upcoming matches. It was announced yesterday, Monday 23 May, that Julian will be leaving Brentford at the end of June. Before then he will link up with his national team for a pair of matches.

Guinea will start their qualification campaign for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations at the beginning of June. They face Egypt away from home on 2 June before hosting Malawi on 6 June. They are in qualification Group D with Ethiopia as the fourth team. They will play each side home and away and the top two will reach the tournament, to be held in Côte d’Ivoire in the summer of 2023.

Julian will be leaving West London after four years with The Bees, albeit having not played for Brentford in more than two years, largely due to a serious knee injury. He made his international debut for Guinea while with The Bees and has earned six caps. One of those games was in the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.

Julian has not played for Guinea since November 2019. He worked his way in to the starting line-up at the end of that year, but international football was then halted due to the Covid-19 outbreak. By the time it resumed, Julian has picked up his injury and is only recently back to full fitness. He can complete his recovery with a return to international action.