Romain Ntamack cuts short Toulouse celebrations for operation on an injury different from the one sustained in Top 14 final
Romain Ntamack goes down with an injury during the Top 14 final
Toulouse fly-half Romain Ntamack has cut short his latest Top 14 title celebrations for a Monday morning operation.
The French No.10 lasted just 41 minutes of Saturday’s extra-time victory over Bordeaux-Begles in Paris.
Having initially come through a first-half head injury assessment to rejoin the action at Stade de France, he was whipped off early in the second half with a shoulder injury.
Shoulder knock
In the aftermath of the 39-33 win, Toulouse boss Ugo Mola explained: “He took a shock to the shoulder on contact. He could no longer shake hands, so we didn’t take any risks.”
Ntamack, though, posted a picture of himself on his Instagram from the hospital on Monday preparing for a procedure to fix a different injury.
The 26-year-old has been struggling with the legacy of the operation he underwent before the 2023 Rugby World Cup after he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. Ntamack returned to action in March 2024 to help Toulouse go on and clinch a Top 14/Champions Cup double.
However, this season hasn’t been plain sailing with his knee, a painful story he revealed in the wake of his club’s June 20 league semi-final win over Bayonne in Lyon. “I’m hanging in there,” he said, explaining that he had been bothered by his knee all through the 2024/25 campaign and needed a clean-up.
“I’m going to bite the bullet…”
“Since the beginning of the season, it’s still a point that has handicapped me… I had injection after injection precisely to avoid surgery and be operational. And at the end of this season, I feel pretty good.
“The injection is having a good effect, so it doesn’t bother me too much. There’s one last match left, I’m going to bite the bullet and have surgery after that.”
Ntamack didn’t stay in hospital for long on Monday as a social media post later in the day on Matthis Lebel’s feed showed him back at the Toulouse title celebrations in a wheelchair.