Half-backs Sebastien Tillous-Borde and Frederic Michalak have been left out of France coach Philippe Saint-Andre’s 25-man squad for next weekend’s World Cup warm-up against England at Twickenham.
Saint-Andre has kept scrum-halves Rory Kockott and Morgan Parra, as well as fly-halves Remi Tales and Francois Trinh-Duc for Les Bleus’ first pre-World Cup warm-up clash.
Saint-Andre insisted it didn’t mean either Tillous-Borde or Michalak were out of contention for making his final 31-man World Cup squad, though. Tillous-Borde, 30, is coming back from a knee injury while Saint-Andre believes Michalak, 32, needs rest.
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“He was injured a lot with Toulon this last season,” said Saint-Andre of the 71-capped Michalak.
“He hasn’t had any niggles in preparation but we wanted to give him another week.”
Some of the 11 players left out of the squad being taken to London are those from Top 14 finalists Stade Francais and Clermont, whose season only finished on June 13. One who wasn’t involved is France captain Thierry Dusautoir, who misses out due to a knee problem.