Antoine Dupont confirms ruptured cruciate ligament

ANTOINE DUPONT will not only miss France’s final match of this year’s Six Nations campaign against Scotland in Paris next Saturday, but faces between six and 12 months on the sidelines recovering from cruciate ligament rupture in his left knee during France’s big win over Ireland in Dublin yesterday.

The French scrum-half and captain – who by common consent has been the best player on the planet in recent years – has confirmed the injury on his social media channels, stating that: “The heart hurts even more than the knee when you have to leave your friends before the last step. I am proud of what we accomplished yesterday and with all my strength with you, you will do it. Rupture of the cruciate ligaments. This is the beginning of a new challenge, I’ll see you in a few months on the field.”

The injury was suffered in the 28th minute of yesterday’s match with members of the French camp, media commentators and fans expressing anger at the nature of the incident, which involved Ireland second-row Tadhg Beirne and prop Andrew Porter collapsing on to Dupont’s knee while attempting a clear-out. It is the same injury as Dupont suffered against Ireland in 2018.

France head coach Fabien Galthie described the incident as “reprehensible”, and said he had highlighted the actions of Beirne, Porter and Calvin Nash, who received a 20-minute red card for a high tackle on Pierre-Louis Barassi, in his post-match report to the citing commissioner.

“We are angry and we want an explanation; so, we have cited two players,” he said. “We must protect our players.”

All three complaints have been dismissed by the citing commissioner, according to L’Equipe  newspaper.