France head coach Fabien Galthié has been forced into several late changes to his extended 42-man squad for the Nations Championship, as injuries continue to mount.
Les Bleus were already without Matthieu Jalibert, Thomas Ramos, Julien Marchand, Emmanuel Meafou, Thibaud Flament, Demba Bamba and Lenni Nouchi for next month’s Tests, and it seems their injury crisis is showing no signs of slowing down with four more players withdrawing.
Galthié’s side come into the Nations Championship top of the Northern Hemisphere pool, winning two of their three Tests in July’s block, and face Argentina, the Springboks and Fiji next month. They will also take part in finals weekend, with their placement still to be decided.
France forced into changes as injuries mount for Nations Championship
The four departures come in the form of La Rochelle duo Karl Sorin and Antoine Hastoy, Bordeaux-Bègles back-rower Marko Gazzotti and Pau centre Fabien Brau-Boirie, which has led to Galthié making a reshuffle of his extended squad.
Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for world-class coverage you can trust.
But, he is not short of talent to come into the mix, with Pau prop Thomas Laclayat, Bordeaux centre Nicolas Depoortere, Toulouse back-rower Anthony Jelonch and Castres fly-half Louis Le Brun all called up in their place.
The latter could also win his first Test cap, but has featured for France U20s in his career to date.
Scotland squad: Uncapped PREM ace named in extended 37-man squad as British and Irish Lions return
Elsewhere, the squad is as previously advertised. Antoine Dupont will once again lead the side out as captain, and he is joined by a host of stars including Louis Bielle-Biarrey, Romain Ntamack, Damian Penaud and Maxime Lucu. Grégory Alldritt also returns to the squad for the first time since the 2025 Autumn Nations Series.
Updated France squad in full
Forwards: Grégory Alldritt, Hugo Auradou, Paul Boudehent, Joshua Brennan, Esteban Capilla, Guillaume Cramont, François Cros, Tyler Duguid, Sipili Falatea, Alexandre Fischer, Jean-Baptiste Gros, Mickaël Guillard, Oscar Jegou, Anthony Jelonch, Thomas Laclayat, Maxime Lamothe, Peato Mauvaka, Charles Ollivon, Jefferson Poirot, Thomas Staniforth, Tevita Tatafu, Reda Wardi, Cameron Woki
Backs: Théo Attissogbe, Léo Barré, Louis Bielle-Biarrey, Nicolas Depoortere, Axel Desperes, Antoine Dupont, Mathis Ferté, Théo Forner, Émilien Gailleton, Kalvin Gourgues, Aaron Grandidier Nkanang, Louis Le Brun, Nolann Le Garrec, Maxime Lucu, Yoram Moefana, Romain Ntamack, Damian Penaud, Tani Vili, Jeremy Ward