Paris (AFP)

Yoann Huget hoped to finish in style with a last title of champion of France or even a first European Cup but the international winger of Stade Toulouse sees his end of career precipitated by a serious injury.

The medical verdict fell like a chopper for the 33-year-old player, with 62 caps with the Blues, who announced in November that he wanted to retire at the end of the season.

Huget suffers from a ruptured right Achilles tendon and underwent surgery on Monday.

The duration of his unavailability has not been specified but this type of injury generally requires five to six months of unavailability and will therefore force him to hang up the crampons earlier.

Unless he reconsiders his decision.

"We have a huge thought today for @ Huget14, operated this afternoon for a ruptured Achilles tendon," tweeted Stade Toulouse, accompanying his message with photos of "the highlights of his season 20- 21 ".

The Toulousains, already deprived of the three-quarters Sofiane Guitoune (knee), will therefore have to manage without the Ariégeois to get a qualification for the final of the European Cup on Saturday against Bordeaux-Bègles and a 21st Shield of Brennus.

His grimaces of pain on Saturday night during the shock of the 22nd day of Top 14 against Racing 92 (34-16) had led to fear the worst.

Author of the first try of his own, the arrow with the brown curls was injured during an acceleration on his right wing, interrupted by the tackle of the opener from Ile-de-France Antoine Gibert.

Hit with the tendon that had been causing him pain since the start of the season, Huget had remained on the ground for several minutes under the worried gaze of his eternal teammate Maxime Médard.

Before leaving the field to the applause of the players of both teams and the few people present in the spans of the Ernest-Wallon stadium.

"We spent years together, playing, battling with the Stadium and in the French team. This image is terrible. There are more serious things in life, but to see your friend on the ground it's complicated, "Medard commented after the meeting.

Huget had already suffered a serious injury to his right knee during the first match of the XV of France at the 2015 World Cup against Italy, which had kept him away from the field for nearly a year.

A new international disillusion for the winger or rear with an imposing physique (1.90 m, 96 kg) who had missed the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand, where the Blues had reached the final, due to a series of failures longitudinal anti-doping monitoring.

- Second World Cup in 2019 -

But the native of Pamiers, launched among the pros at Stade Toulouse in 2005 before stints in Agen and Bayonne and a return to Rouge et Noir in 2012, had returned to competition in August 2016 after a long rehabilitation.

He scored a try for his return with the Blues against the Samoa Islands in November of the same year.

It took a long time to get back to his best.

But Huget had been rewarded for his efforts by living a second World Cup, full, in 2019 in Japan, nine after his first cape.

He stopped in the quarterfinals with the Blues against Wales.

With Stade Toulouse, Huget won the Brennus Shield the same year, the second including that of the 2007-2008 season where he had played very little.

He wanted to get a third and especially a first European Cup before leaving his body, put to the test, to rest.

"It's been two years that I drag an Achilles tendon injury, I have trouble recovering (...) That's why I made this decision to stop and leave my body to restructure because since 2015 I take it in entrenchments which are a little hard. I think that it is the right moment ", he explained in November.

Cruel end for the Toulousain.

© 2021 AFP