Laporte made the staggering statement at the conclusion of Frances summer tour of North America where they extended their winning streak to seven matches with victories over the United States and Canada.

The France boss summoned 12 uncapped players for the tour and saw enough to be confident about the make-up of his squad for the World Cup, which will be staged in France.

We have had a large overview of all the candidates who are likely to go to the World Cup, said Laporte.

We now know 98% of the extended team. We will keep following 50 or 60 players and more if necessary.

I dont want to communicate on a list but it will remain open.

We will go and visit clubs and give the players we want a preparation programme. We would like to monitor and test their capacities every eight weeks.

Laporte also highlighted the benefit of exposing a dozen new players to the national team set-up during the recent tour.

Beyond the two wins over the United States and Canada this tour was interesting because we saw 12 new players train, act and react to various situations, he explained.

They realised what high level truly meant, not necessarily in terms of matches but by training with (captain Fabien) Pelous or (Pieter) De Villiers.

They got the message how an international player should train twice as much as a club player.

Coping with the work at a club is not enough to remain on an international level.

Staying with the French team requires far more individual work.