"The judge has decided provisionally to place him in detention," said Marc Gallix, the player's counsel who was taken into custody Friday night after violence against his wife on the public road in Montpellier. Violence for which the latter has not filed a complaint, said the lawyer.

Mohamed Haouas "has a criminal record", conceded Marc Gallix, before adding: "The major issue Tuesday is that I manage to get him out of prison".

The MHR player will be tried in immediate appearance by the Criminal Court of Montpellier, before which he faces a maximum sentence of three years of detention.

The Montpellier colossus (1.85 m, 123 kg), who will join the Clermont club next September for three seasons, could see his chances of participating in the 2023 World Rugby (September 8-October 28) further compromised by this new case, while the list of 42 players selected for the World Cup must be announced on June 21.

According to a source close to the case, a dispute broke out Friday between the international (16 caps) and his wife in front of the shopping center where the latter works. "He made a sweep (Editor's note: kick in the ankle to make someone fall), she fell and he hit her in the face," added the same source, noting that several people had witnessed the scene, also captured by video surveillance cameras.

"If they are established, the facts of domestic violence accused of Mohamed Haouas are unacceptable," responded Saturday in a tweet the Minister of Sports and Olympics Amélie Oudéa-Castéra.

Aged 29, married and father of two children, Mohamed Haouas has already twice experienced the dock of the judicial court of Montpellier, for facts committed in his youth, nearly ten years ago.

In February 2022, he was given an 18-month suspended sentence for his role in burglaries in 2014, when he was not yet a professional rugby player.

On 12 May, he appeared on charges of "aggravated violence" and "destruction of the property of others committed in a group", facts also dating from 2014 and for which the deliberations are expected on 30 June.

Appearing as a meteorite within the XV of France at the beginning of the era of coach Fabien Galthié, quickly indisputable holder, Haouas then fell back in the hierarchy of pillars of the XV of France because of less successful sporting performances but also blood strokes that earned him two red cards.

© 2023 AFP