LONG READ ‘Dupont may return just as fast and even wiser and smarter. France, and the world, hopes so’

So that’s it for Antoine Dupont. His season is over. He won’t be captaining France to a likely Six Nations title against Scotland on Saturday evening, nor will he play any part in Toulouse’s bid to repeat last season’s European and Top 14 double.

Instead, Dupont’s focus for the rest of the year is on rehabilitation as he recovers from the knee injury that he suffered half an hour into France’s rip-roaring win over Ireland at the Aviva on Saturday.

“[It is a] rupture of the cruciate ligaments,” posted Dupont on a social media account. “This is the beginning of a new challenge, I will see you in a few months on the field.”

Not since Lions captain Brian O’Driscoll was up-ended by All Blacks Tana Umaga and Keven Mealamu, a mere 41 seconds into the first Test against New Zealand in 2005, has there been such controversy over an injury. In that case the Irishman – who required shoulder surgery – was clearly targeted and it defied belief that neither Kiwi was sanctioned on the pitch or subsequently.

Dupont’s injury is more ambiguous. The French believe he was the victim of a dangerous clear-out. Jean-Marc Lhermet, the vice-president of the FFR, said he found it “incomprehensible” that no Irishman had been punished. Others, not just Irish fans but also neutrals, sympathise with Dupont but believe it was a legitimate rugby collision in a match of eye-watering physicality.

What every rugby fan can agree upon is that the loss of Dupont for the rest of the season is a bitter disappointment: for him and for the sport. Talents like his are scarce, and his absence robs rugby of one its greatest ever stars.

When I come in and see one of my best mates in the dressing room like that, it’s heart-breaking.

Dupont’s injury was headline news on Sunday across the mainstream print and broad media in France. Aside from Kylian Mbappe, Dupont is the most famous sporting face in the country, the man who inspired the French Sevens team to gold in last summer’s Paris Olympics.

Several of his team-mates admitted they had played the second half with Dupont in their mind. “When I come in [at half-time] and see one of my best mates in the dressing room like that, it’s heart-breaking,” said No.8 Grégory Alldritt. “It was also a little bit of fuel for the second half.”

No-one played better in the second half than Maxime Lucu, the man who replaced Dupont. If there is one position where France have an abundance of riches, it’s at scrum-half. Lucu, Nolann Le Garrec and Baptiste Serin are all excellent nines, as is Paul Graou, Dupont’s deputy at Toulouse.

Lucu was last season designated one of France’s ‘leaders’, the select group of players identified by Fabien Galthié as possessing natural authority. The others are Dupont, Alldritt, Gaël Fickou, Charles Ollivon, Anthony Jelonch and Julien Marchand. Though injury has deprived France of Ollivon and Fickou in this Six Nations, the point is that they have enough leaders to fill in for Dupont.

So one need not worry about France. But Dupont? It’s the second time he has ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament [ACL] in his right knee. The first injury was in 2018, also against Ireland, in his sixth Test. He was back in action eight months later.

But he was 21 then. He turns 29 this year and one may wonder if his body will heal as quickly this time.

After an ACL injury, patients may experience strong emotions of tension and anxiety, fear of new injuries, reduced confidence, and low motivation.

Of course, many other players have suffered similar injuries, among them Dupont’s Toulouse team-mate Jack Willis. The England flanker ruptured his anterior ligaments in his right knee during Wasps’ Premiership semi-final against Saracens in 2018. Three years later on international duty, it was the ligaments in his left knee that ruptured.

Willis documented his 2021 recovery on Instagram in a series of videos entitled ‘The Rebuild 2.0’. It was apparent that for Willis – like so many – rehabilitation was as much mental as physical. “I’m not a millions miles off potentially being a rugby player again and getting out there on the field,” he said at one point. “It’s pretty nervous thinking like that, thinking I’m a mile off. Hopefully my confidence improves as well because mentally at the moment I feel pretty nervous. I’ve got a lot of anxiety around being back and playing.”

Willis’s emotional response was perfectly normal. In an article in a 2023 medical journal, two Norwegian orthopaedic surgeons discussed the importance of targeting ‘psychological readiness’ as part of ACL rehab. “Functional recovery has for long been the focus of rehabilitation after an Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) injury,” they wrote. “It is now increasingly recognised that more attention should be given to patients’ mental recovery… after an ACL injury, patients may experience strong emotions of tension and anxiety, fear of new injuries, reduced confidence, and low motivation.”

Four years after enduring a second ACL injury, Willis is playing the best rugby of his career, proof that players can come back even stronger.

I had to reinvent myself. I lost a metre or two of speed but got wiser and smarter.

Another flanker who suffered an ACL was the great All Black Michael Jones. He was the Dupont of his generation, a freakishly gifted player who was the star of the 1987 World Cup when New Zealand swept all before them. Then against Argentina in 1989 he ruptured every single ligament in his knee. “I remember the doctor gave me the prognosis that it was the end of my career,” reflected Jones, who was 24 at the time. “The injury was like being hit by a car at 40kph, and it was the worst knee injury the doctor had seen.”

Jones returned to Test rugby a year later, but now playing on the blind-side instead of the open-side. “I had to reinvent myself,” he said. “I lost a metre or two of speed but got wiser and smarter…I had to live with a lot of related niggle injuries due to the fact my knee was basically reconstructed.”

Sports medicine has developed a great deal in the 35 years between Jones’ ACL injury and Dupont’s. The Frenchman may come back just as fast and even wiser and smarter.

France hopes so, and the world hopes so, too. Rugby needs players like him, one of that rare breed whose genius leaves you breathless.