France famous person Antoine Dupont confirmed on Sunday that he has ruptured the ligaments in his proper knee after being substituted in his his staff’s Six Nations win.
Such an harm normally comes with a nine-month restoration interval, which means Dupont will miss the remainder of the season and certain the beginning of the 2025-26 season.
Dupont sustained the harm throughout France’s 42-27 win over Eire in Dublin on Saturday. The incident occurred within the first half when Tadhg Beirne and Andrew Porter have been clearing out a ruck, with Beirne falling on Dupont’s leg.
Dupont is broadly thought-about to be the perfect participant in males’s rugby and confirmed the harm on his Instagram account, whereas wishing his staff effectively forward of their match with Scotland subsequent weekend the place they’re favourites to safe the 2025 Six Nations.
“The guts is much more painful than the knee in the mean time after having to desert the mates earlier than the ultimate match,” Dupont wrote on Instagram. “I’m pleased with what we completed yesterday and with all my power with you, you’ll do it.
“Cruciate ligament rupture. That is the beginning of a brand new problem, I will see you in a couple of months on the pitch.”
France took pole place within the championship after their complete victory over Eire in Dublin. They’ve a vastly superior factors distinction to the opposite challengers, and a win in opposition to Scotland subsequent weekend in Paris ought to safe the title.
However the fallout from Dupont’s harm is more likely to dominate the narrative over the subsequent week no less than.
Simon Easterby, the Eire interim head coach, described it as a “rugby incident” however post-match, France head coach Fabien Galthié was livid.
Galthié additionally turned consideration on Eire wing Calvin Nash for his unlawful hit on Pierre-Louis Barassi within the second half which led to Nash getting a yellow card, and compelled Barassi off.
“There’s a suspicion of a fairly severe knee harm to Antoine,” Galthié mentioned on Saturday. “He’s struggling — for example it how it’s. I do not wish to go into particulars, primarily as a result of medical confidentiality. We’ve cited two gamers — Tadhg Beirne and Andrew Porter — in our post-match report.
“We’ve highlighted [Calvin] Nash to the citing commissioner for [the incident with] Pierre-Louis Barassi, who didn’t reply effectively to the HIA protocol. We had gamers who by no means got here again on.
“We’re offended and we would like an evidence; so, we’ve got cited two gamers. We should shield our gamers. There are guidelines, laws … there is a kind of anger. “I don’t need to judge the standard of refereeing as we speak.”
France’s rugby federation confirmed on Sunday that Dupont and Barassi had been withdrawn from the squad for the Scotland conflict, with Baptiste Serin and Fabien Brau-Boirie coming in to interchange them.
Galthié added to France 2 TV: “We really feel unhealthy for [Antoine]. When it comes to the motion, in my view it was reprehensible, and there are methods to check and analyse it. We really feel for him as we speak. He’s struggling and we’re struggling with him.”
Easterby was requested in regards to the incident, and mentioned there was no intention of foul play. “Tadhg [Beirne] cleans out somebody in entrance of Antoine Dupont and he will get hit off the again of it. It occurs, sadly,” Easterby mentioned.
“Gamers have an actual consciousness now of clearing out on the decrease limb of the participant, which may create that sort of harm, however that wasn’t the case. He was securing his personal ball and never making contact on Dupont. Sadly that occurs. It is simply a type of issues sadly. It occurs within the recreation.”
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France with a ‘generational efficiency’ vs. Eire
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