Italy star a major injury doubt for remainder of Six Nations

Ange Capuozzo’s Six Nations campaign could be over before it has virtually begun after the Azzurri full-back picked up a shoulder injury in Sunday’s 33-8 defeat to France in Lille.

In what was his first appearance of the year following a finger injury, Capuozzo took a real pounding in the 72 minutes he was on the field.

He fielded a succession of high balls from the off and was on the receiving end of some crunching tackles, but still managed to cross for Italy’s only try and was his side’s top ball carrier.

However, following the defeat, Italy head coach Gonzalo Quesada admitted that the Toulouse player could be out for a period of time and feared what Ugo Mola, his club coach, would say.

An acromioclavicular injury has a recovery time of anything between three weeks and three months.

“He hurt his shoulder, but the early prognosis is that it’s more likely an acromioclavicular injury than a dislocation, but I’m not a doctor; I stopped in my fourth year,” said Quesada.

“I think we’ll see once he’s had some scans. Maybe it’s more the acromion (shoulder blade) than a dislocation, which can change a lot of things, especially for Ugo (Mola), because otherwise he’s going to get angry.”

Italy completed the last eight minutes of the France game with an all-changed back-three, with Monty Ioane replaced by Paolo Odogwu and Louis Lynagh in the sin-bin for the second time in the championship for a deliberate knock-on.