World Cup over for Garbajosa

French winger Xavier Garbajosa will fly home from the World Cup after failing to recover from a knee ligament injury.

Team manager Joe Maso confirmed the news this morning and revealed that Montferrand’s David Bory had been called up as a replacement for 25-year-old Garbajosa, who presented the team shirts before yesterday’s 51-9 win over Scotland at Telstra Stadium.

It is only four months since Garbajosa had knee surgery and though coach Bernard Laporte expected him to play a part in the World Cup, recovery has taken longer than anticipated and it was decided over the weekend to let the player return to France.

“We are saying goodbye with a heavy heart,” admitted Maso. “But Xavier has been getting a lot of pain in training and he is not 100%.

“If he had been older, we may have taken a risk but he is young enough to play in another World Cup, so the best thing is for him to go back to France and see the physios and medical staff who treated him after the original operation.”

Maso also revealed scrum-half Fabien Galthie (ankle) and Tony Marsh (Achilles) both picked up knocks against Scotland.

Neither injury is believed to be serious but it is unlikely the pair will be considered for the final Pool B outing against the United States on Friday.