France superstar Antoine Dupont confirmed on Sunday that he has ruptured the ligaments in his right knee after being substituted in his his team’s Six Nations win.
Such an injury usually comes with a nine-month recovery period, meaning Dupont will miss the rest of the season and likely the start of the 2025-26 season.
Dupont sustained the injury during France’s 42-27 win over Ireland in Dublin on Saturday. The incident happened in the first half when Tadhg Beirne and Andrew Porter were clearing out a ruck, with Beirne falling on Dupont’s leg.
Dupont is widely considered to be the best player in men’s rugby and confirmed the injury on his Instagram account, while wishing his team well ahead of their match with Scotland next weekend where they’re favourites to secure the 2025 Six Nations.
“The heart is even more painful than the knee at the moment after having to abandon the mates before the final match,” Dupont wrote on Instagram. “I am proud of what we accomplished yesterday and with all my strength with you, you will do it.
“Cruciate ligament rupture. This is the start of a new challenge, I’ll see you in a few months on the pitch.”
France took pole position in the championship after their comprehensive victory over Ireland in Dublin. They have a vastly superior points difference to the other challengers, and a win against Scotland next weekend in Paris should secure the title.
But the fallout from Dupont’s injury is likely to dominate the narrative over the next week at least.
Simon Easterby, the Ireland interim head coach, described it as a “rugby incident” but post-match, France head coach Fabien Galthié was furious.
Galthié also turned attention on Ireland wing Calvin Nash for his illegal hit on Pierre-Louis Barassi in the second half which led to Nash getting a yellow card, and forced Barassi off.
“There is a suspicion of a quite serious knee injury to Antoine,” Galthié said on Saturday. “He is suffering — let’s say it how it is. I don’t want to go into details, mainly due to medical confidentiality. We have cited two players — Tadhg Beirne and Andrew Porter — in our post-match report.
“We have highlighted [Calvin] Nash to the citing commissioner for [the incident with] Pierre-Louis Barassi, who did not respond well to the HIA protocol. We had players who never came back on.
“We are angry and we want an explanation; so, we have cited two players. We must protect our players. There are rules, regulations … there’s a sort of anger. “I do not want to pass judgement on the quality of refereeing today.”
Galthié added to France 2 TV: “We feel bad for [Antoine]. In terms of the action, in my opinion it was reprehensible, and there are ways to study and analyse it. We feel for him today. He is suffering and we are suffering with him.”
Easterby was asked about the incident, and said there was no intention of foul play. “Tadhg [Beirne] cleans out someone in front of Antoine Dupont and he gets hit off the back of it. It happens, unfortunately,” Easterby said.
“Players have a real awareness now of clearing out on the lower limb of the player, which can create that type of injury, but that wasn’t the case. He was securing his own ball and not making contact on Dupont. Unfortunately that happens. It’s just one of those things unfortunately. It happens in the game.”
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