France captain Antoine Dupont is having tests after suffering a suspected fractured jaw during the hosts’ record 96-0 win against Namibia.
Dupont, 26, left the pitch in the 46th minute after Johan Deysel made a head-on-head tackle and was sent off.
Scrum-half Dupont, who had earlier scored one of France’s 14 tries, went off holding his right cheekbone.
“There’s a suspicion of a crack or fracture in his jaw. He’s gone for tests,” head coach Fabien Galthie said.
“We’ll wait for the results before moving forward. We need to take advantage of this great victory and the players’ fine performance.”
France general team manager Raphael Ibanez told ITV: “We feel sorry for Antoine. It just reminds us how dangerous head-to-head contact can be.”
The loss of Dupont would be a severe blow to France’s chances of winning the World Cup for the first time.
He was the world player of the year in 2021 and was voted Six Nations player of the tournament in 2022 and 2023.
After a hard-earned win over New Zealand in the tournament’s opening game, Dupont was among 12 players rested for France’s second group win over Uruguay.
France’s full-strength side started against Namibia in Marseille on Thursday and – with Dupont at his creative best – were leading 54-0 when Deysel collided with the Frenchman.
The Namibian captain was initially shown a yellow card but that was upgraded to red following a review by the television match official.
Asked if he should have taken his star player off at half-time to protect him from injury, Galthie said: “What do you want me to say? You can’t take 14 players off at half-time.
“Our plan was to bring off [forwards] one, three and five at half-time, then the rest at the 55th minute. The aim was to give everyone some game-time and not sit back for a month. The players wanted and needed to play.”
Dupont was replaced by Lyon scrum-half Baptiste Couilloud, who scored two tries as France went on to surpass their previous record score of 87-10 against the same opponents at the 2007 World Cup.
The win moved the host nation top of Pool A and they will look to secure their place in the quarter-finals as group winners when they play Italy in their final pool game on 6 October.
