{"id":802689,"date":"2026-10-14T20:48:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T20:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/802689\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T20:48:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T20:48:14","slug":"french-lose-another-big-gun-for-nations-championship-and-vital-bok-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/802689\/","title":{"rendered":"French lose another big gun for Nations Championship and vital Bok meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Published: 4 hours ago | 14 October 2026 12:19 EDT <\/p>\n

mens<\/p>\n

nations-championship<\/p>\n

Thomas Ramos of France celebrates with Thibaud Flament, Joshua Brennan, Antoine Dupont scoring his last penalty goal giving the victory to France during the Guinness Six Nations 2026 rugby match between France and England at Stade de France on March 14, 2026 in Saint-Denis near Paris, France. (Photo by Jean Catuffe\/Getty Images) \"Google <\/a> <\/p>\n

France<\/a> have suffered another major blow ahead of their Nations Championship<\/a> campaign, with Toulouse<\/a> lock Thibaud Flament ruled out for several weeks with a shoulder injury, French outlet L\u2019Equipe<\/a> have reported.<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old played the full 80 minutes of Toulouse\u2019s 45-34 Top 14<\/a> win over Bayonne<\/a> on Sunday but has since been sidelined, with L\u2019Equipe reporting that the issue will keep him out of France\u2019s November programme.<\/p>\n

That means Fabien Galthi\u00e9 will be without both Flament and Emmanuel Meafou \u2013 possibly his preferred second-row partnership \u2013 for the upcoming Tests against Fiji, South Africa<\/a> and Argentina, as well as the final weekend of the Nations Championship at the end of the month.<\/p>\n

The timing is particularly damaging ahead of the November 13 meeting with the Springboks in Paris, a fixture France will view as one of the defining matches of their Nations Championship campaign with an eye on the World Cup next year.<\/p>\n

Meafou is already expected to miss the autumn after suffering a knee injury last month, leaving Galthi\u00e9 without the second-row pairing that had been expected to anchor his pack against the world champions.<\/p>\n

Flament\u2019s absence is also a major setback for Toulouse, who begin their Investec Champions Cup<\/a> campaign this weekend. The French champions face Exeter Chiefs<\/a> on Sunday and will now head into Europe without Flament, Meafou and Cl\u00e9ment Verg\u00e9, further stretching their resources in the second row.<\/p>\n

Toulouse high-performance manager J\u00e9r\u00f4me Cazalbou said this week that Flament was being rested because of a shoulder issue, but the latest reports suggest the problem is more significant than first indicated.<\/p>\n

France are already dealing with uncertainty elsewhere in the squad, with Bordeaux-Begles fly-half Matthieu Jalibert also sidelined by a thigh injury and facing a race to return for the start of the Nations Championship.<\/p>\n

For Galthi\u00e9, the loss of Flament compounds an increasingly difficult build-up to November, particularly with South Africa\u2019s powerful pack looming in Paris.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published: 4 hours ago | 14 October 2026 12:19 EDT mens nations-championship Thomas Ramos of France celebrates with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":802690,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-802689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=802689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/802690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}