France captain Antoine Dupont may be out of his team’s blockbuster game against the Springboks in Paris on 8 November.Dupont hobbled off the pitch in the 29th minute of Les Bleus’ Six Nations encounter with Ireland in Dublin on Saturday when Tadhg Beirne fell on his right leg at a ruck. The Irish lock seemed to have been pushed by prop Andrew Porter.Dupont is said to have heard a ‘snap’ when the injury happened, which indicates an ACL tear.
The 28-year-old scrumhalf has yet to have an MRI scan, but should the diagnosis be confirmed, he will not only miss the rest of the season, but potentially not play again this year due to the rehabilitation period of an ACL, which is six to nine months.
The former would see him miss France’s much-trumpted replay against the Boks, who infamously beat Les Bleus by a point in the 2023 World Cup quarter-final at Paris.Dupont was replaced by Maxime Lucu, the only back on the French bench, during Saturday’s game, which the visitors won 42-27 and took them to the summit of the Six Nations log with a round to go.
There is a suspicion of a quite serious knee injury,” France coach Fabien Galthie said at a press conference, adding that he was “angry” about the injury.
“I will say no more as to what exactly the injury is due to the medical protocols,” All one could add was Antoine was in pain. We’ve called some of the players to appear before the disciplinary committee,” Galthie added, blaming Beirne as well as Porter for the damage.
Ireland acting coach Simon Easterby put it down as “just a rugby incident.”.
This is something,” he said. “It’s one of those things that just does happen in the game.”.
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