It's a big blow for the XV of France.
Sunday during the victory of the Blues against Scotland, the third line Anthony Jelonch suffered a rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament of the left knee.
“
Our joy is moderate because the news is not good about Anthony Jelonch
”, Fabien Galthié immediately dropped after the match at a press conference.
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The Stade Toulousain player had had a very complicated match.
Hit in the head after a dangerous tackle from Grant Gilchrist (which earned him a red card), the Gersois was out on concussion protocol after just seven minutes of play. He came back into play seven minutes later, but the Blues flanker had been replaced definitively by François Cros after 25 minutes of play, touched again after a save on Duhan van der Merwe.
His knee had twisted on the action.
"What did the staff of the XV of France do?"
"
You know the protocol
: it's almost six months of absence, between the operation and rehabilitation
", worried Fabien Galthié.
The Toulouse season is now over.
And he will try to return in time to participate in the next World Cup, in France, which begins on September 8.
In the mixed zone, his teammate François Cros, entered in his place, had dropped:
“I am so sad for him.
It sucks to lose a friend.
Anthony is a very important player in our squad, in selection and in club.
He was on fire right now.”
Read alsoXV of France: questions still unanswered
In the columns of Le
Parisien
, Anthony Jelonch's father, Jérôme, did not hide his anger at the sequence of the match which led to this serious injury.
"I do not understand, without the intervention of the doctor of the France team, the referee would not have whistled the fault or interrupted the match (
after the first tackle on the shoulder of Gilchrist, editor's note),
Fagerson deserved a yellow too.
What do the referees do
?”
he asks.
And to strike, bitter:
“And what did the staff of the XV of France do
?
Why did you revive Anthony, released for a concussion protocol, when we had two substitutes with François Cros and Sekou Macalou
?
I was in the stands and I was crazy.
By letting him rest, we could have avoided what happened next.
"He is the son of a farmer, he has experienced hard times"
For the XV of France, it is a huge loss as the Gersois, a true warrior on the ground, had asserted himself as an essential element in the last matches, taking advantage in particular of the absence due to injury of François Cros to settle permanently in the starting XV.
“
Raphaël Ibanez
(the French manager)
called me to tell me that they wouldn't let him go.
But Anthony does not need the staff of the XV of France today.
He needs a good surgeon and his family.
“, continues Jérôme Jelonch, visibly reassembled.
Read alsoXV of France: all the Blues in support of Haouas, after his expulsion against Scotland
His son
"always gives his all, he's a great professional, maybe that's not the case around him,"
he says.
While emphasizing the mental strength of Anthony Jelonch:
“Everyone says the World Cup is already over for him, we'll see.
Anthony has spirit and he is surrounded by his family.
He is the son of a farmer, he has experienced hard times, like those hailstorms that destroy a good harvest in a few minutes.
We always got up.
He will come back."
The race against time is on.
