Toulouse injury list grows ahead of Perpignan

The second row is hardest hit, with three long-term absentees.

“We’ll see in two days how the squad is and who is still fit, because every weekend looks the same,” Antoine Dupont said after Toulouse’s 43-40 win over Exeter, played with 14 men for more than an hour. La Depeche counted sixteen absentees for that game.

A decimated second row

Emmanuel Meafou (lateral knee ligament, operated on after the Vannes game on 19 September), Thibaud Flament (shoulder, operated on after Bayonne on 11 October) and Clement Verge (cruciate ligaments in pre-season, back hoped for in spring) are all out. The club is looking for a medical joker: Tonga international Jimmy Tupou, 34, with 70 Super Rugby games, was at the Stadium on Sunday, according to La Depeche.

The centres fall too

Against Exeter, Chocobares went off with a concussion and his replacement Menoncello injured his left shoulder; the Italian will be out for several weeks. Thomas Ramos has suffered a setback with his thigh injury, Julien Marchand tore a hamstring against Bayonne (three to four weeks) and Jack Willis has had a knee problem since mid-September. Verge, Valentin Delpy and Leo Banos have not played any of the season’s seven official games.

Still top of the table

The injuries have not knocked the leaders off course: Toulouse have 24 points and five wins from six Top 14 rounds. “We are breaking injury records here,” Ugo Mola admitted before Exeter. Theo Ntamack, man of the match on Sunday, has been one of the standout performers of the season so far.

Galthie short of key men

Fabien Galthie’s squad for the November Tests is due on Wednesday. Ramos, Marchand, Flament and Meafou are all injured less than three weeks before the first Test, against Fiji on 7 November. At Bordeaux Begles, Matthieu Jalibert has suffered a quadriceps setback and Gaetan Barlot needs neck surgery.