{"id":680488,"date":"2026-01-07T18:42:22","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T18:42:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/680488\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T18:42:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T18:42:22","slug":"france-dealt-six-nations-injury-blow-door-opens-for-dupont-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/680488\/","title":{"rendered":"France dealt Six Nations injury blow, door opens for Dupont return"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>France scrum-half Maxime Lucu has emerged as a major doubt for the start of their Six Nations title defence, with the Bordeaux-Begles man out for up to six weeks.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Lucu, 32, was primed for a major role in Fabien Galthie\u2019s side this Championship, but is now likely to miss the early rounds with a knee injury.<\/p>\n<p>The Bordeaux ace has been a mainstay in the French side since his debut in 2021, boasting 33 caps to his name.<\/p>\n<p>France rocked by Maxime Lucu injury blow<\/p>\n<p>Speaking ahead of his side\u2019s Investec Champions Cup meeting with Northampton Saints, a repeat of last season\u2019s showpiece final in Cardiff, UBB head coach Yannick Bru detailed that he could be ruled out for up to six weeks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf Maxime Lucu works well, it will be four weeks,\u201d he said via AFP. \u201cOtherwise, it will be six.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"px-3 xs:px-4 mt-3 mb-2 font-semibold leading-snug text-base text-title\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetrugby.com\/news\/six-nations-all-the-fixtures-and-kick-off-times-ahead-of-the-2026-edition\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Six Nations: All the fixtures and kick-off times ahead of the 2026 edition<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>That six-week timeframe would leave Lucu a major doubt for the opening two rounds of the Championship, with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetrugby.com\/team\/france\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Les Bleus<\/a> set to take on Ireland in the opening game of the Championship on Thursday, February 5, before then facing Wales at the Principality Stadium in round two, with the Test scheduled for Sunday, February 15.<\/p>\n<p>With him now likely to miss those Tests, it presents a clear opportunity to bring star man and captain Antoine Dupont back into the starting side. The Olympic gold medalist has not donned the blue jersey since rupturing his ACL against Ireland during last year\u2019s Championship, but he is now back on the field after returning with Toulouse.<\/p>\n<p>Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as <a rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=planetrugby.com\" target=\"_blank\">a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n<p>Another option is La Rochelle man Nolann le Garrecc. The 23-year-old started in France\u2019s defeat to the Springboks, and previously played a key role in the 2025 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetrugby.com\/tournament\/six-nations\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Six Nations<\/a> triumph with three appearances off the bench.<\/p>\n<p>Toulon man Baptiste Serin could also be called into the squad. He was drafted into the Six Nations training group last year, but has not played a Test match for Les Bleus since their tour of Argentina in 2024.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE: <\/strong><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetrugby.com\/news\/six-nations-announce-surprise-broadcast-deal-as-major-player-grows-rugby-portfolio\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Six Nations announce surprise broadcast deal as major player grows rugby portfolio<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"France scrum-half Maxime Lucu has emerged as a major doubt for the start of their Six Nations title&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":680489,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[5314,2000,299,36,225,90462,206417,12,4209,5707],"class_list":{"0":"post-680488","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-antoine-dupont","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-france","12":"tag-home-page","13":"tag-internationals","14":"tag-maxime-lucu","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-six-nations","17":"tag-top-14"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115855290837042161","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=680488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/680489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}