At midday on Friday, Antoine Dupont left Marseille for Toulouse, the France captain’s hopes for the remainder of the World Cup resting on the answers he finds there after suffering a devastating facial injury in the previous evening’s victory over Namibia that threatens to end his participation.
Depending upon the advice of the surgical specialist, the France team aim to make a decision by the end of the weekend. Their hopes, too, hang in the balance.
In the build-up to the match against Namibia, what would be only his second time playing in Marseille, Dupont had been asked about his first outing at the Stade Vélodrome, back in November of last year. “I have mixed memories of the last match”, he jokingly replied.
Although France had claimed a dramatic win over the reigning world champions South Africa, Dupont’s game ended shortly after half-time – a high tackle on Cheslin Kolbe earning him the only red card of his career so far. He won’t cherish the memory of his latest visit to the city, either.
This time, it was a head-on-head collision from a mistimed tackle by centre Johan Deysel just after the break that brought Dupont off early. Les Bleus’ one-sided festival of tries suddenly took on a gloomier tone.
Although France duly racked up a record scoreline against a beleaguered Namibian team – a man down after Deysel’s red card – the focus was squarely away from the pitch. Dupont returned to the changing room in tears, holding his jaw – the blow was all the more devastating, considering he was due to come off for a well-earned rest just minutes later.
Satisfying as the scoreline may have been, Fabien Galthié’s decision to play a full-strength team has since been called into question, given it may have cost him his star man for the rest of the tournament.
The head coach’s agitated reaction in the post-match press conference was telling of the disastrous consequences Dupont’s injury would have. “What do you want me to say? I can’t take off all 15 players at half-time.” When asked about his decision to play the first team from the start, Galthié turned to Charles Ollivon to rhetorically ask how he felt about playing – to which the startled flanker responded that he was pleased to have had some playing time.
Any discussion of the performance was overshadowed by the agonising wait for news on the fitness of the team’s talisman. As Dupont was undergoing initial tests, Galthié explained that there were suspicions of a “fissure or a fracture”, adding to concerns of a potential long-term absence.
Early on Friday morning Dupont was confirmed to have suffered a “maxillo-zygomatic fracture” – effectively a jaw and cheekbone injury. The blow will, at the very least, keep him out of action for several weeks. Whether the scrum-half can return before the end of the tournament will hinge on the outcome of the next 48 hours of medical exams – a weekend during which the hosts’ World Cup hopes could virtually unravel completely.
After initial tests on Thursday, Dupont left for Toulouse to see a specialist, with a view to potentially undergoing an operation. For a dispirited Stade Toulousain president Didier Lacroix, who followed his club captain to hospital, the news was “worrying” for the rest of the tournament.
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The team’s medical staff have given themselves until the end of the weekend to make a definitive decision – until then, Dupont is still part of the squad. The backs coach Laurent Labit spoke of an “optimistic” mood in the French camp on Friday morning despite the “bitter taste” of Thursday’s win. The France setup is ostensibly playing down the injury for the time being – for Labit, “Antoine’s tournament is not over”.
In any case, without the team’s captain, chief orchestrator, best player in the world, the overriding feeling is that Les Bleus are now directionless. Beyond fettering France’s hopes, Dupont’s absence also deprives the tournament of its main star – the face of the competition, the man whose image is plastered across every host city.
The Pyrenées native, already a household name in France, appeared on the verge of spearheading a home World Cup win that would secure him a Zidane-like stature in the public eye. The unanimous reaction of despair – even from rival fans – has made it evident that the tournament will not be quite the same without Dupont.
The increasingly illusory hope is for a return in time for the semi-finals, which, crucially, would sideline the scrum-half for a prospective quarter-final clash against South Africa or Ireland. For the final pool stage game against Italy, fly-half Matthieu Jalibert is likely to be flanked by his Bordeaux teammate Maxime Lucu instead.
French fans will be dreaming of seeing Dupont back out on the pitch soon enough, potentially wearing a protective mask – in the same vein as former international Imanol Harinordoquy for Biarritz when he broke his nose in 2010. However, the prolonged uncertainty surrounding the exact length of his period of absence means those prospects are dwindling.
If the worst case scenario does unfold, they could also draw hope from New Zealand’s successful campaign on home soil in 2011, despite captain Dan Carter’s injury. Without dwelling too long on that year’s final, though.