|
Unavailable: Stade Toulousain's
Jean-Baptiste Elissalde
Photo: Michael Paler |
The growing injury crisis at
Stade Toulousain appears to be escalating by the day, with
the south west giants seeming to have inherited Perpignan’s
fly-half curse that dogged last year’s champions.
Rookie No 10 Jean
Doussaint has become the latest victim, breaking his nose in
the club’s bruising pre-season encounter with Biarritz on
Friday night. Doussain now joins fellow fly-halves Frederic
Michalak, David Skrela and Jean-Baptiste Elissalde on the
club’s crock list, posing a serious headache for coach Guy
Noves ahead of Saturday’s season-opener away to Montauban.
Top 14 Table
/
Top 14 Transfers
/
ProD2 Transfers
/
Top 14
Fixtures 2009/10
/
Pre-season friendlies
As a rugby mad Oscar
Wilde might have said: "To lose one fly-half may be regarded
as misfortune, to lose four looks like carelessness”.
Doussaint had been in
line for a possible start against Montauban but now the
pressure is on for Michalak to recover in time from his
hamstring “contracture” which ruled
him out of the Biarritz clash.
Skrela has already been
ruled out until Christmas and Elissalde has played no part
as yet in any of Stade’s pre-season games. Yannick Jauzion,
another possible alternative, is still feeling his way back
to fitness after an operation to remove his tonsils, and
didn’t play against Biarritz either.
Despite the growing
crisis Noves said he would not field players who weren’t
full fit, shedding doubt on the possible selection of
Michalak. “What is certain is that we will not take any risk
if we are not sure he is operational,” added the Toulouse
coach.
Doussaint’s injury was
not Stade’s only casualty against Biarritz either, with
Fijian winger
Maleli Kunavore sustaining a broken
arm that will rule him out for three months. And
the Basque club didn’t escape unscathed either, with Imanol
Harinordoquy picking up an ankle injury that could leave him
sidelined for up to six weeks. And this was just a friendly!
Stade Francais are also
struggling in the build up to the season’s glamour-tie
curtain raiser away to Toulon on Friday night.
The Parisians’ Australian coach Ewen McKenzie told
RuggaMatrix that he could be missing 17 players for the
clash against Jonny Wilkinson’s Toulon. “It’s going to be a
challenge,” he admitted looking ahead to Friday’s match.
Stade Francais have
only played two warm-up matches but the combination of
injuries and unavailabilities is proving debilitating. Young
centre Mathieu Bastareaud has only just returned to training
after a troubled summer, while a host of other
internationals have been ruled out due to the short break
between seasons.
“The FFR and Italian
federations aren’t allowing their players to play in the
first round of competition,” lamented McKenzie. “That takes
out nine players straight away.”
On top of that Italian
captain Sergio Parisse is suspended after being found guilty
of ‘eye-gouging” in the summer internationals.
Sympathy will be hard
to find down in Toulon, where Mourad Boudjellal’s deep
pockets have funded a massive recruitment campaign
spearheaded by the arrival of Wilkinson.
The international record points scorer is
currently back in the UK to take part in England’s four-day
training camp, but he has been given special dispensation to
leave early to make his long-awaited Top 14 debut on Friday.
