Castres full-back Brice Dulin looks set to be ruled out of France's Six Nations campaign after sustaining an adductor injury in Thursday's loss to Bayonne.
The 22-year-old, who has five caps for France, was forced off the field in the 52nd minute in serious pain and is scheduled to see a specialist in Bordeaux on Friday.
The initial signs are not good however with Castres coach Laurent Labit suggesting the player had little chance of featuring in the Six Nations since he has been struggling with the injury since September.
"I don't see how he'll be able to avoid an operation," said Labit after the match in Bayonne.
The French squad is set to meet on the outskirts of Paris on Saturday ahead of their opening clash against Italy on Sunday, February 3.
If Dulin is not able to make it, Toulouse's Maxime Médard or Clément Poitrenaud are favourites to be called up.
Comments
Rosbif says...
How ridiculous that all the French elite players are getting bashed up in T14 a week before the 6N. What are the Welsh, Irish, English etc doing? Yes, that's right. Resting. Planning. Training together. Going to Poland for cryotherapy etc etc...
When will France fix this?
Posted 19:42 25th January 2013
Kiwirooster says...
Bummer. Dulin is such a classy fullback.
If he turns out to be absent for this year's 6N, bring on O'Connor on the left wing and bring in Médard, Buttin, Martin or Palisson at fullback.
Let's hope PSA quit thinking about Fofana on the wing: waste of space, waste of talents that would be.
Posted 14:16 25th January 2013
markpat says...
Clermont's full back has been very good whenever I've seen him play this season.
Posted 13:54 25th January 2013
mlbp says...
As always, the first list given by the coaches is not the definitive list. Fickou and Dulin are the first casualties. I wonder how many more players will come off the list after this weekend... France have depth (how's Medard after his long-term injury?) but Dulin was the first one on the race to wear 15.
Posted 12:15 25th January 2013