Luis Enrique is confident it will not only be Kylian Mbappe boasting impressive stats in the Paris St Germain attack this season.

The opening five matches of PSG’s Ligue 1 campaign have seen them claim eight points and score 10 goals, with seven of those being netted by Mbappe.

The France forward was on the scoresheet once again in Wednesday’s 2-0 Champions League victory over Borussia Dortmund, putting his side ahead with a penalty.

PSG return to league action with Sunday’s Le Classique against Marseille at the Parc des Princes, and when asked at his pre-match press conference if the team were depending too much on Mbappe, boss Enrique said: “That is a great thing to worry about.

“If we have a player like Kylian Mbappe who usually scores 50 goals and gets 25 assists, it would be ridiculous to think that he wouldn’t keep that up.

“We hope he can keep improving, and his team-mates can contribute more in terms of goals and assists, and I think many of the players will have impressive stats.”

In a summer that saw Lionel Messi and Neymar depart the club, PSG’s new signings included the attacking trio Ousmane Dembele, Goncalo Ramos and Randal Kolo Muani, none of whom have scored yet.

Enrique was asked if he was expecting more in the Marseille contest from the latter pair, and said: “I expect a lot from every player.

“We need to be efficient in attack and in defence. We need our defenders to bring the ball forwards to our attackers so they can score goals, and the attackers also need to apply the press.

“What matters is that we achieve our target as a team.”

The champions, after drawing twice, then winning twice, were beaten in their last league outing, 3-2 at home by Nice.

Marseille have parted company with boss Marcelino since their last league match.

The club said a meeting took place on Monday at which “representatives of the supporters’ associations expressed their wish to see the current OM directorate resign”, adding: “The threat of a ‘war’ against them was issued, for as long as they did not resign from their posts.”

OM then released a statement on Wednesday saying: “Olympique de Marseille believes that the events of September 18 do not allow Marcelino and his technical staff to carry out their role under suitable conditions for which they were hired.

“As a result of this regrettable situation, Marcelino and his staff will not continue the job they started at Olympique de Marseille.

“Given the circumstances, the entire club is extremely disappointed to face the departure of a coach and technical staff who arrived in Marseille on June 23 and were fully committed to the club, due to non-sporting reasons.”

OM – who are a point better off than PSG in Ligue 1 – subsequently drew 3-3 with Ajax in the Europa League on Thursday, overseen by Jacques Abardonado.

Reo Hatate’s penalty and second-half goals from Matt O’Riley and Daizen Maeda helped Celtic to a 3-0 win at Livingston despite losing Joe Hart to a first-half red card.

The former England goalkeeper fouled Mo Sangare just outside of the penalty box and was sent off by referee John Beaton.

That left Brendan Rodgers’ side to play the final hour with just 10 men but they never looked in any real danger as Livingston failed to take advantage of their numerical supremacy.

Their manager David Martindale had made two changes from the team that had drawn 1-1 with Ross County the previous weekend.

In came Sangare and Scott Pittman, replacing Mikey Devlin and Stephen Kelly.

There was only one change to the Celtic starting line-up from their Champions League loss to Feyenoord and it was a surprising one, James Forrest handed his first start since January as Luis Palma dropped out.

The first chance came for Celtic but Hatate’s low dribbler lacked the power to trouble Shamal George in the home goal.

Livingston replied with a fierce Bruce Anderson drive that Hart did well to parry, with Callum McGregor booting Pittman’s rebound effort off the line.

The opening goal, however, came at the other end after 13 minutes. Luiyi de Lucas needlessly brought down Hatate and Beaton immediately awarded the penalty.

Hatate chose to take it himself and his effort squeezed under George’s body to give Celtic the lead.

The goalkeeper was unfortunate there but proved his worth shortly after as he rushed out to block Maeda’s shot from close range.

The next piece of drama unfolded at the other. Sangare reached James Penrice’s ball ahead of Hart, the goalkeeper bringing him down clumsily on the edge of the box.

Beaton flashed a red card and VAR did not change the decision, reducing Celtic to 10 men for the remaining hour of the match. Forrest was sacrificed to allow Scott Bain to come on.

Penrice took the resultant free-kick but curled it into the side netting before Ayo Obileye had a dig from distance that Bain stopped well.

Livingston began the second half looking to capitalise on their extra man but instead found themselves further behind less than three minutes later.

Maeda failed to turn in Kyogo Furuhashi’s cross from close range but O’Riley helped him out by lashing in the rebound.

Joel Nouble then tried to lob Bain after a mistake by the substitute goalkeeper but his attempt drifted just over the crossbar as Livi failed to mount any kind of response.

Instead there was still time for Celtic to claim a third in injury time with Maeda finishing well from distance.

Karl Burke’s Royal Rhyme could be destined for greater things after a tough win in the Virgin Bet Daily Extra Places Doonside Cup Stakes at Ayr.

While the colt sent off the 6-5 favourite under Clifford Lee, it was Amy Murphy’s Pride Of America who stalked off to take a significant lead early on.

A long way from home it soon became apparent that none of the other runners were close enough to lay down a challenge and the front two had it between them for the last three furlongs.

Only Burke’s could reel the front runner in, drawing level with him a furlong from home and eventually applying himself to the task to prevail by a length and a quarter.

“I was very confident I was going to get him (Pride Of America),” Lee told ITV Racing.

“What I didn’t want to do was leave it too late, so three (furlongs) down I just started giving him a squeeze and tried to keep tabs.

“From then on I knew I was going to get him.”

Royal Rhyme was previously a runaway winner of the valuable Kincsem Handicap at Goodwood and Lee rates this performance as similarly impressive.

A step up in grade now under consideration as the bay holds an entry for the Qipco Champion Stakes and has been cut from 33-1 to 16-1 with Betfair and Paddy Power for that contest.

“It was good, I’d say it was on par” said Lee.

“The ground wasn’t as soft as it was at Goodwood but it was a great performance by him.”

Sione Tuipulotu insisted he will cast aside any emotional attachment to Tonga as he bids to help Scotland get their World Cup campaign off the ground in Nice on Sunday.

The Australia-born centre’s father Fohe is Tongan and the 26-year-old admits he has a “lot of love” for a nation that represents part of his heritage.

However, Tuipulotu is hell-bent on ensuring the Scots put the Pacific islanders to the sword as they look to keep alive their hopes of progressing to the quarter-finals.

“It’s probably a tricky one,” he smiled when asked on Saturday about how he feels going up against his dad’s country. “No matter how much you try not to think about it, it’s always kind of there in the back of your mind.

“But I’m fully focused on getting the victory for Scotland tomorrow. I’m sure it’ll be emotional during the anthems and stuff.

“Of course, I’ve got a lot of love for Tonga, and that side of my heritage. But tomorrow I’m fully focused on doing my best to get a win for Scotland, and get our World Cup back on the road.”

Fohe will be watching on television from Australia as his son bids to get the better of his home country at the biggest tournament in rugby.

“My dad’s with my little brother at home, he can’t leave him by himself,” said Tuipulotu. “Mum’s over here. But my Dad will wake up and watch it, so I’ll wait for his message after the game.

“I know he’s got both (Scotland and Tonga) jerseys in the house. I’ll have to ask my little brother which one he’s got on (on Sunday). I’m sure he’ll be going for (supporting) us though.”

Tuipulotu was overwhelmed with emotion when he spoke a fortnight ago about his mother Angelina travelling from Australia to watch him play for Scotland for the first time against South Africa in Marseille.

He explained on the eve of the Tonga game how she helped lift his spirits after the 18-3 defeat by the Boks.

“It was actually quite good because my mum doesn’t know anything about rugby so she thought we all played really well,” he laughed.

“I kind of knew we didn’t but when I saw her after the game and she said ‘Oh, you guys all played so well’, it was refreshing and picked me up for that 20 minutes but then I was back to ground zero when we got on the bus.

“It was nice to see my mum after that. That’s the best thing about mums, they pick you up when you are feeling down.

“To be honest, I was really disappointed after the South Africa game. It took me a couple of days, probably took me a week to get over.

“But we’re over that now. We’ve done our reviews and we’re fully focused now on getting back into Tonga. It’s the perfect game for us to try and enforce our game on to them.”

The Scots must win all three of their remaining matches if they are to have a chance of qualifying for the knockout phase, but Tuipulotu is adamant there is no additional pressure on the players as a result of having no margin for error.

“I think all the games just kind of pose their own bits of pressure,” he said. “It’s a World Cup, every game poses that bit of pressure.

“There are no easy games in the World Cup, so this game’s the same for us as it was for South Africa.

“We’ve prepared the same as we did for South Africa and we’re all hoping we can put out a better performance.”

Tuipulotu has forged a formidable centre pairing with club-mate Huw Jones for both Scotland and Glasgow. Their partnership will be broken up this weekend, however, as Jones drops to the bench and Gloucester’s Chris Harris takes over the number 13 jersey.

“I’ve played a lot of rugby with Chris,” said Tuipulotu. “In the early days when I was getting my first couple of caps for Scotland I was playing under his wing, and I’ve learned a lot from Chris both sides of the ball, but particularly defensively.

“When I first came to Scotland, I was a bit of a rogue defender but I learned a lot from Chris.

“He’s always put his arm around me and helped me, and I feel very comfortable with him alongside me. We’re going to out there and have a great performance together.”

The Irish raider prevailed as Jack Davison’s Thunderbear rolled to a smart success in the Dubai International Airport World Trophy Stakes at Newbury.

Davison’s three-year-old has been victorious on these shores before, landing a Nottingham handicap in May before stepping up to Group level with a string of respectable runs throughout the summer.

Back in England he was not especially fancied for the Newbury Group Three, starting at 12-1 under Sean Levey in a field of five.

Andrew Balding’s Nymphadora made the running, but Thunderbear was never far behind her and just ahead of the furlong pole he kicked into gear and strode clear to win by a neck.

William Haggas’ Sense Of Duty, winner of four of her previous five outings but running for the first time in well over a year, was a further two lengths away in third.

“Once we saw the rain was coming we were happy to give him the entry and we were glad it stayed soft,” said Davison.

“He ran well at Royal Ascot (eighth in the Jersey) and won at Nottingham, and though he’s had a busy season and travelled a lot he had the ground.

“We decided to drop him back to five and ride him prominently, and Sean gave him a lovely ride.

“I had an odds on winner here (She’s Quality) earlier in the season – there was pressure that day – and she will run in the Cheveley Park at Newmarket on Saturday.”

Levey said: “Give credit where it’s due they came here and they conquered. He was a great ride and he loved the ground.”

Jessica Harrington is eyeing a second straight Group Three prize with Ocean Quest in the Westgrove Hotel Renaissance Stakes at the Curragh on Sunday before plotting a return to Ascot.

The three-year-old filly heads into the Westgrove Hotel Renaissance Stakes on the back of an impressive strike in the Ballyogan Stakes at Naas.

Before that, Ocean Quest had performed with great credit at big odds when finishing fourth to Shaquille in the Commonwealth Cup.

Another tilt at Ascot Group One glory in next month’s Qipco British Champions Sprint Stakes is on the agenda if all goes well this weekend.

“We were really pleased with her last time out at Naas and everything has gone well with her since then,” said Harrington.

“She’s in great form and we’re looking forward to running her. This was always the plan to use as the next stepping stone before going to Ascot on British Champions Day.

“It’s already been a great season for her and the good news is that she stays in training next year.

“She’s gone well on all types of ground this year. I was quite surprised that she did so well on fast ground at Ascot in the summer, but conditions should be perfect on Sunday.”

It was good to firm when Ocean Quest was in contention two furlongs out at the Royal meeting.

However, the daughter of Sioux Nation also handled heavy ground when romping home by six lengths in a Navan Listed race back in April, when the reopposing Aesop’s Fables was runner-up.

French import Go Athletico has proved another shrewd purchase for Ado McGuinness since being snapped up after a Listed win at Deauville in April.

He scored at a similar level at Cork in June before twice finishing second in Group-class company.

The son of former high-class sprinter Goken, who had his last run in the 2016 renewal of this race, chased home Art Power in the Sapphire Stakes here.

He was then runner-up to Moss Tucker when returning to the Curragh for the Phoenix Sprint.

Big Gossey earned this step up in class by seeing off 21 rivals in the valuable Bold Lad Sprint Handicap over course and distance for Charles O’Brien.

Michael O’Callaghan’s Twilight Jet was also a winner last time out in a Tipperary Listed event, but Shartash is still trying to recapture the sparkle of a smart juvenile campaign which brought course and distance success in the Railway Stakes.

Clever And Cool, a winner at Naas, Cork and Tipperary this term, drops down in class and distance after taking on Tahiyra in the Matron Stakes at Leopardstown.

Tower Of London is back out again quickly in the Friends Of The Curragh Irish Cesarewitch having finished fourth in the St Leger at Doncaster last week.

The three-year-old features in a maximum field of 30 and he will be ridden by Ryan Moore, who jets back from Australia overnight to take the ride.

Tower Of London, a brother to Irish Derby and St Leger winner Capri, already has one big handicap win on his record in the Ulster Derby before he stepped up in class to be second in the Bahrain Trophy.

While no match for stablemate Continuous on Town Moor, he finished only a length behind the runner-up Arrest.

O’Brien won the race with a three-year-old last season when Waterville came from last to first to win in devastating style.

O’Brien said: “It’s a little bit quick for him to be coming back, but it is an important race and we thought it was worth taking the chance with him.

“This horse is rated much higher than Waterville when he won (last year), so that means he’s obviously got a lot more weight than Waterville had.

“He ran a good race in the St Leger, he ran well in it and he wasn’t beaten too far.”

Numerically the race is dominated by National Hunt trainers – principally the champion Willie Mullins who runs six.

Top weight Jackfinbar, the mare Echoes In Rain, Stratum, Mt Leinster – who is the mount of Rachael Blackmore – Lot Of Joy and M C Muldoon.

James Fanshawe sends over recent Goodwood winner Novel Legend, while Adrian Keatley runs Legendary Day, who won the Mallard at Doncaster last week.

Emmet Mullins holds a strong hand with Teed Up and Cheltenham Festival winner The Shunter, with Galway Hurdle third My Mate Mozzie representing Gavin Cromwell.

Rudi Garcia has attempted to brush off any criticism of Napoli’s slow start to their Serie A title defence.

The champions opened their campaign with two victories but were then poor in a home defeat by Lazio before struggling to force a draw at promoted Genoa, with the sequence of results leaving them sixth in the fledgling table.

A 2-1 midweek Champions League triumph at Braga has done little to sway the detractors of Garcia’s system – which is traditionally attack-focused but has so far failed to excite fans at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona who watched a team led by Luciano Spalletti swashbuckle their way to success in 2022-23.

Garcia told a press conference before Sunday’s trip to Bologna: “We are an attacking team – we have always scored goals and we could have scored more, for example against Braga. Sometimes you need things to go a few millimetres the other way.

“We’ve conceded five goals in the league, which is too many, but we’ve only conceded eight shots, which means we are not out of position or conceding too many, but we certainly need to be more effective.”

On the Lazio loss, the Frenchman added: “If we’d played better in the second half we would have taken some points so now we have to make up for the points lost when we’re away from home, in Bologna, where we are going to win.

“They’re a good team. I admired Thiago Motta as a player and I’m happy he’s also doing well as a coach. We are 100 per cent focused on tomorrow’s match.”

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia was the star turn of the Partenopei surge to Scudetto glory last term, with his 12 goals and 13 assists helping to fire Napoli to their first title since 1990.

However he has failed to score at all since March 19 and Garcia has so far struggled to find a position in which the 22-year-old Georgia international can recapture that scintillating form.

He lasted barely an hour at Braga and Bologna will hope his sense of frustration is not too strong when he arrives at the Stadio Renato Dall’Ara.

The Rossoblu have also put together an eclectic set of results so far this season, following up their first win – against Cagliari – with a low-key draw against Hellas Verona on Monday night.

Boss Motta will not let his players become overwhelmed by the prospect of facing the reigning champions in their next match, telling La Gazzetto dello Sport: “We continue to work hard.

“We think about the next training session and game with the aim of always improving.

“We know we are facing the champions next. I watching them play well in the Champions League, they had many scoring opportunities, they won and gained confidence from that.

“We have to focus on what we have to do and what we should avoid doing.

“Their wingers are good and they have excellent players through the middle, too.”

Swedish rookies Linn Grant and Maja Stark secured a vital win as Europe remained two points behind the United States at 7-5 after the third session of the Solheim Cup.

Home favourite Carlota Ciganda had led from the front as she partnered Emily Pedersen to victory over Lilia Vu and Jennifer Kupcho in the opening foursomes at Finca Cortesin.

However, defeats for Anna Nordqvist and Leona Maguire, and Georgia Hall and Celine Boutier gave the visitors a 7-4 lead until Grant and Stark closed out their match with Danielle Kang and Andrea Lee in brilliant fashion.

Stark holed from 25 feet for birdie on the 17th to move one up and, with their opponents in close on the par-five 18th, Grant holed from 10 feet for birdie to seal the win.

Grant told Sky Sports: “It’s amazing. The last two holes gives us so much momentum. We’re on such a high right now, it feels great.”

The close friends had lost the opening foursomes on Friday and were split up for the afternoon fourballs, but repaid the faith of Europe captain Suzann Pettersen on Saturday.

“It’s so much fun, especially getting that confidence from Suzann putting us together,” Stark said. “Two rookies has got to be a little hard for her to put out in the first group yesterday.

“I think there were a lot of nerves involved on the first few holes yesterday and getting to play with her (Grant) again is just amazing and I knew that we could do it. It was just about letting loose and just doing it.”

Nordqvist and Maguire had been two up after eight holes against Lexi Thompson and Megan Khang, but bogeyed the ninth, 10th and 11th to fall behind.

A birdie on the 15th got the European pair back on level terms, only for them to bogey the 17th as Nordqvist appeared to choose the wrong club and fired her tee shot into a bunker at the back of the green.

Hall and Boutier, who had surrendered their unbeaten record on day one, never recovered from losing the first two holes to Nelly Korda and Allisen Corpuz and were unsurprisingly left out of the afternoon fourballs, with Sweden’s Caroline Hedwall making her first appearance alongside Nordqvist.

A fortnight on from their defeat by South Africa, Scotland play their second match of the World Cup against Tonga in Nice on Sunday.

Here, the PA news agency assesses some of the key talking points ahead of a crucial Pool B fixture for Gregor Townsend’s side.

No margin for error

After losing the opener to the Springboks, Scotland will almost certainly have to win all three of their remaining pool fixtures against Tonga, Romania and Ireland if they are to progress to the quarter-finals. Depending on results elsewhere in the section, bonus-point victories are also likely to be required. Scotland are red-hot favourites to get the result they need on Sunday, and have generally been very good at dealing with lower-ranked opponents, but there is an extra degree of pressure attached.

Return of the two Lions

Of the eight Scotland players who toured South Africa with the British and Irish Lions in 2021, only Zander Fagerson, Finn Russell and Duhan van der Merwe can still be considered regular starters for the national team. Stuart Hogg retired earlier this summer while Rory Sutherland, Chris Harris, Ali Price and Hamish Watson – although still in the squad – have become less prominent. Prop Sutherland and centre Harris, however, have been given a rare chance to start this weekend and remind everyone of their qualities.

Scots’ attack must spark

The defeat by South Africa was the first time Scotland had failed to score a try for almost three years and their lowest-scoring outing since the first game of the 2019 World Cup. Townsend’s team have become renowned for their swashbuckling attacking play so it was unusual to see them look so blunt. With softer opposition this weekend, they should get themselves back over the try-line but, with tougher tests ahead and the need to atone for falling flat against the Springboks, there is a sense that the Scots – with Kyle Steyn replacing Darcy Graham on the wing – could do with delivering an exuberant attacking performance.

Have the Boks dented Scots’ morale?

Scotland came into the tournament with genuine belief they could win their opener against South Africa so there was an air of deflation among the squad in the immediate aftermath. The fact they had no game last weekend means there is unlikely to be any physical or mental hangover. The players had three days of downtime with their families to get the Boks defeat out of their systems, and have been in good spirits when facing the media, seeming desperate to get back on the horse and show their opening-day flop was a mere blip.

Scots relishing base city outing

Scotland’s World Cup base is just west of Nice and they have been training at Stade Nicois’ ground, which is a short hop from Stade de Nice. The squad’s capping ceremony the day after they arrived at the tournament was held just off the Promenade des Anglais, where they were given a warm welcome by the Mayor of Nice, and there are posters and billboards dotted around the city referring to their presence. The team have become acclimatised to life on the Cote d’Azur and with a huge number of Scottish supporters having descended on Nice, the players are relishing their only opportunity at the tournament to play in their base city.

Serie A leaders Inter Milan head to rock-bottom Empoli on Sunday after their flying start to the season came to an end in the Champions League on Wednesday.

The Nerazzurri opened their campaign with four victories from as many league games, scoring 13 goals and conceding just one – in a 5-1 thrashing of champions AC Milan last weekend.

Their first match in the Champions League – the competition in which they finished as runners-up last term – then saw them draw 1-1 at Real Sociedad thanks to a late equaliser from skipper Lautaro Martinez.

The Argentina forward, for whom it was a sixth goal of the season, emphasised the need for improvement.

“We didn’t play well,” Martinez said in quotes on Inter’s official website.

“We started poorly and struggled; we could have done better. I don’t think it was down to fatigue.

“This is how Real Sociedad play; they pushed high up the pitch, and we didn’t attack the space well. We were getting caught in possession close to our area, and we need to be better with our build-up play from the back.

“It’s important that we didn’t lose, and we did well to stay in the game. We really pushed to score an equaliser, but we didn’t play like we can. We need to raise our level.”

Simone Inzaghi’s men face an Empoli outfit who are yet to register a point or score a goal across their opening four league games, and sacked boss Paolo Zanetti after a 7-0 thrashing at Roma last Sunday.

The experienced Aurelio Andreazzoli has been brought in as Zanetti’s replacement, the 69-year-old signing a one-year contract with an option for a further season.

It is a fourth spell in charge at the club for Andreazzoli, who told a press conference: “I’m here with great enthusiasm. Empoli is an environment that I like and in which I feel good.

“I know the players and the team well from the outside, now I will evaluate from the inside.

“The general impression is that of a team that has the potential to express itself.

“The numbers are not comforting now but the journey is long, we are at the first step and then we will see which direction to take.

“The kids want to express themselves and we will try to put them in a position to do so without burdens. Everything that has happened has happened, we must look forward with enthusiasm.”

Andreazzoli’s first stint with Empoli saw him guide them to promotion from Serie B in 2017-18, and he kept them up in the top flight in 2021-22.

England defender Lucy Bronze admitted her goal against Scotland was something she had practiced during the World Cup.

Just over a month since their World Cup final defeat against Spain, the Lionesses earned an inaugural Nations League victory on Friday night with a 2-1 win against Scotland in Sunderland.

Bronze put the hosts ahead in the 39th minute after a fantastic pass from Katie Zelem picked out the former Black Cat, who made a perfectly timed run to head home.

She told the England website: “It was something we worked on in the World Cup. But it never came off then, so we saved it for tonight instead.”

Lauren Hemp then doubled the lead for the hosts six minutes later before Kirsty Hanson pulled one back with the last kick of the half.

Scotland had plenty of opportunities to level after the break, with arguably their best chance coming when Hanson smashed a rebound off the crossbar.

England goalkeeper Mary Earps was also forced to make good saves from Martha Thomas and Christy Grimshaw and Bronze admits Hanson’s goal gave the visitors plenty of confidence in the second half.

“Them getting that goal right before half-time changed the momentum of the game,” Bronze added.

“Right until the end, they were creating chances but in the first half we did enough, we were by far the better side in that first half.

“The second half was a little bit more even, we made a couple more mistakes and they got a lot of confidence from scoring that goal in the first half.

“They looked a little shaky at the beginning and we looked a little more confident. A couple of sloppy passes on our behalf let them back in the game.”

A hard-fought three points at a lively Stadium of Light sees England go second in Group A1 of the competition and boss Sarina Wiegman was pleased to see Bronze score on home turf.

“I was of course very happy for her but also very happy for the team, she’s from this area so that makes it extra special,” she said.

“I think it was really special anyway to be here in a sold-out Stadium of Light, we’ve been here two years ago and this was a little different because it was packed.

“The noise even from the start of the game was really nice and the pitch was really good, an incredible pitch.

“The timing of that moment, the pass from Katie Zelem and the timing of her run and the header was really good.”

Up next for England in the competition is a trip to Utrecht to face the Netherlands on Tuesday.

France captain Antoine Dupont has undergone surgery after suffering a facial fracture during Les Bleus’ Rugby World Cup victory over Namibia.

Namibia captain Johan Deysel apologised to Dupont following a head-on-head collision that has left the France star’s tournament in doubt.

Deysel’s yellow card for the collision, with France leading 54-0, was upgraded to red following a review by the television match official and he now faces a disciplinary hearing.

In a message posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, Dupont said: “Show must go on. Looking forward to seeing the group again. Thank you for your messages.”

The French Rugby Federation said: “Following his injury contracted during the France-Namibia match, Antoine Dupont underwent surgery on September 22 around 11pm at the Purpan University Hospital in Toulouse.

“In a few days, he will be able to return to the French team in a process of gradual return to sport under medical supervision.”

Dupont’s fitness setback is headline news in France, and there is a real possibility of Les Bleus losing their star player for the rest of the tournament.

France’s final pool game is against Italy in Lyon on October 6, before a quarter-final – probably against Ireland or South Africa – the following weekend.

If Les Bleus reach the semi-finals, they take place in Paris on October 20 and 21.

Dupont has been inundated with messages from well-wishers as the former world player of the year battles to keep alive hopes of playing again in France’s home World Cup.

England defence coach Kevin Sinfield said: “I am disappointed for the competition, but we have no doubt he will be back.

“World-class players like that get themselves right very, very quickly, and I am sure he is doing everything he can.

“It will be a period of time, but you’ve seen players before play with facial fractures. So I suspect he will be back on his feet and back available very, very soon. We wish him all the best.”