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Dupont faces crucial meeting next week to decide World Cup future
By Josh Raisey
France’s medical director Bruno Boussagol has said that captain Antoine Dupont has “ticked those boxes” following his return to training after undergoing surgery for a fractured cheekbone, but his future participation at the World Cup depends on whether the surgeon gives the green light next week.
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Despite passing the concussion protocols and getting through his first two sessions unscathed, Dupont and France will have to wait until Monday to see whether the surgeon believes he is fit for contact or not. Even if the scrum-half does get the green light, Boussagol said that it will be down to the French staff to decide whether he is fit to play.
“He returned to the squad this weekend,” Boussagol said. “He was at training on Sunday with the medics. He did some exercises to see if everything was OK. Then he swiftly moved on to some running drills. He ticked those boxes in the first session and again in the second session. Everything is on track with Antoine. He passed his concussion protocols this morning so he is free from that too.
“The next step is a visit to the surgeon which is scheduled for Monday. That is the last check. We will wait for the surgeon’s opinion to see what progress we can expect from Antoine next week, assuming we qualify after the Italy match.”
France face Italy on Friday in Lyon, and will be without their captain there. They will then face a nervous wait over the weekend to find out the 26-year-old’s World Cup fate, with a probable clash with reigning world champions South Africa waiting for them in the quarter-finals at the end of that week.
“I’m going to try to be clear about this,” the medical director said. “There is a pathway of decision making in his comeback. The prerequisite is the surgeon. That is the medical view. For as long as we don’t have the medical view, we cannot look at the rugby side of things and contact. Even if he has the green light from the surgeon, we will look at his comeback in a progressive way, like we would with any player returning to the pitch.
“At the same time, if the opinion of the surgeon is good, if he passes that test, we move into another stage. We will have to see how he reacts. Is he capable of getting involved in contact? Does he have the physical capacity? Does he still have any concerns?
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“The third stage is the choice of the coaches. Just because Antoine is on the pitch doesn’t mean that he’s going to play. That is the third stage which must be decided by the coaches, once they have been updated about Antoine with the rest of the staff. They will discuss that and they can take their decision. There are three important stages but it is all conditional on the approval of the surgeon.”
Dupont is not the only French star that is recovering from an injury currently. Hooker Julien Marchand limped off the field in the opening match of the World Cup against the All Blacks with a hamstring injury, and Boussagol said that France are continuing to monitor the Toulouse star after he “had some problems”.
He said: “He was at a stage of increasing his power. We had two days to up the intensity and introduce some rugby-based drills. We had a target that he didn’t reach, so we preferred not to take any risks. We are in the fourth week [since he was injured against New Zealand]. We know hamstrings are delicate to manage. We preferred to delay his comeback. We will monitor him day by day and continue to work with him and the conditioning staff.
“He had some problems doing a series of tasks. The first stage was OK but the second when he did the next one, we felt there was a drop in quality. We said it would take between four and six weeks. We are in the fourth week now and we decided we were taking a risk in forcing the training and bringing him into preparations for this week, so we have taken him out of the group.
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“Next week we will start again and try to progress him through the stages. If he gets past this stage, then we can assume he will be in contention for the next match [a possible quarter-final]. If he doesn’t get through that, we will have to proceed cautiously. And that could take another two weeks.”
I hope Dupont can make it back but not at the risk to his long term health. France are a superb team and he is their talisman. The game with the Boks will be titanic as will my team with the top team Ireland.