Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Heartbreak for Wesley Fofana as his World Cup is over before it got started

Injury has forced Welsey Fofana out of the French squad in Japan

Wesley Fofana’s World Cup is over before it got started, France confirming that the 31-year-old midfielder will be replaced by 21-year-old rookie Pierre-Louis Barassi.

ADVERTISEMENT

Fofana has travelled to the finals in Japan under a cloud having got injured in the August 30 warm-up win over Italy in Paris. 

It was thought he would recover to play an influential part in the pool campaign that started on Saturday against Argentina and features a blockbuster October meeting with Six Nations rivals England. 

However, Fofana missed the opening round win over Los Pumas with what Jacques Brunel described as a complication and it was announced in the aftermath of the hard-fought 23-21 victory that he will now travel home to Clermont and miss the remainder of the tournament.

Although capped on 48 occasions since making a Test debut in 2012, Fofana had been having a difficult 2019 with injuries. He had to give up at a late stage travelling to Italy for a Six Nations match last March while he was similarly a late absentee for an August warm-up in Scotland. 

(Continue reading below…)

Video Spacer

He eventually made it back on to the Test pitch to face the Italians, but a new thigh injury in training in Japan has scuppered his hopes of recovering from the knock suffered versus the Azzurri.  

Fofana’s exit will likely herald his retirement from Test rugby as he had said pre-tournament that these finals in Japan would be his last adventure with France. 

ADVERTISEMENT

He is the fourth French player to drop out of the World Cup reckoning through injury and the second centre. Midfielder Geoffrey Doumayrou had to throw in the towel in mid-August after he suffered achilles tendon damage. 

Fofana will be replaced by Barassi, a 2018 junior world champion, He was awarded his first Test level call-up ahead of more experienced players such as Henry Chavancy, Jonathan Danty and Remi Lamerat.

WATCH: The new RugbyPass documentary, Tonga: Road To Japan

Video Spacer
ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

A
AM 39 minutes ago
'Freelancer' Izaia Perese shows the need for true inclusivity in Australian rugby

That's Cron's job though. Australia has had one of the most penalised scrums in international rugby for a long time. Just look at the scrum win loss percentage and scrum penalties. That is your evidence. AA has been the starter during that period. Pretty simple analysis. That Australia has had a poor scrum for a long time is hardly news. If bell and thor are not on the field they are woeful. So you are just plain wrong. They have very little time for the lions so doing the same old things that dont work is not going to get them there.


Ainsley is better than our next best tighthead options and has been playing well at scrum time for Lyon in the most competitive comp in the world. Superstar player? No. But better than the next best options. So that is a good enough guide. The scrummaging in the Prem is pretty good too so there is Sio's proof. Same analysis for him. Certainly better in both cases than Super, where the brumbies had the worst win loss and scrum pen in Super. Who plays there? Ohh yes... And the level of scrummaging in Super is well below the URC, prem and France with the SA teams out.


Nongorr is truly woeful. He's 130kg and gets shoved about. That just should not be happening at that weight for a specialist prop who has always played rugby cf pone with leauge. He has had enough time to develop at 23. You'd be better off with Pone who is at least good around the field for the moment and sending Nongorr on exchange to France or England to see if they can improve him with better coaching as happened with Skelton and Meafou. He isn't going to develop in time in super if he has it at all.


Latu is a better scrummaging hooker than BPA and Nasser. and he's the best aussie player over the ball at ruck time. McReight's super jackling percentage hasnt converted to international level but latu consistently does it at heniken level, which is similar to test level in the big games. With good coaching at La Rochelle he's much improved though still has the odd shocker. He should start the November games.

72 Go to comments
TRENDING
TRENDING Clear favourite emerges for Munster job amid Graham Rowntree exit Clear favourite emerges for Munster job amid Graham Rowntree exit
Search