Stade
Francais fly-half Lionel Beauxis will miss the upcoming
November internationals after being ruled out for six weeks
with a broken right hand.
The
24-year-old sustained the injury during Stade’s 20-14 home
defeat by Perpignan on Saturday - his birthday - but didn’t
realise the extent of the damage until he had X-rays on
Monday.
His loss
is a blow to France head coach Marc Lièvremont, who had
planned to name Beauxis and Montpellier’s Francois Trinh-Duc
as his two fly-halves.
Lièvremont is due to announce his 30-man squad on Wednesday
and could now include Biarritz’s Damien Traille as cover for
Trinh-Duc. Last season he also used Clermont Auvergne’s
Benoit Baby in that position, while Stade Toulousain’s
Jean-Baptiste Elissalde and Frederic Michalak could also
come into the equation.
Reports
in France this week suggest that Lièvremont will also
include Stade Toulousain centre Yann David and Perpignan’s
highly rated duo of Maxime Mermoz and David Marty.
One
player definitely set to miss out, however, is Beauxis’
Stade Francais colleague Mathieu Bastareaud.
The
21-year-old centre has fallen dramatically from grace
following his false allegations of being mugged while on
tour with ‘Les Bleus’ in New Zealand during the summer.
The well-publicised incident reached
governmental levels on both sides but Bastareaud escaped an
official ban, with the FFR deciding ‘community service’
would be more worthwhile for the troubled youngster.
Bastareaud apparently tried to commit suicide after
returning to a media frenzy in France, and was subsequently
admitted to a psychiatric hospital. He has since returned to
playing, but only last week Lièvremont said he was still
waiting for an apology from the player – who is a cousin of
footballer William Gallas.
Now it
seems that Bastareaud is ready to head his coach’s advice –
as surely he must – and is due to hold a press conference
today (Tuesday) when he is expected to issue a full apology.
France
are due to play South Africa on November 13th, Samoa on
November 21st and New Zealand on November 28th.
