Taulupe Faletau has been ruled out of the rest of the World Cup after suffering a broken arm during Wales' win over Georgia; fly-half Gareth Anscombe and full-back Liam Williams have also suffered injuries; Scarlets' Kieran Hardy replaces Faletau in Warren Gatland's squad
Sunday 8 October 2023 16:17, UK
Wales No 8 Taulupe Faletau has been ruled out of the remainder of the Rugby World Cup with a broken arm.
Head coach Warren Gatland confirmed the extent of the injury in his post-match press conference after Wales' 43-19 win over Georgia on Saturday.
His absence from the remainder of the tournament is a huge blow for Wales, with Gatland describing it as "a big loss".
On Sunday, it was confirmed that Scarlets scrum-half Kieran Hardy had been called up as a replacement, with flanker Aaron Wainwright an option to replace Faletau at No 8.
Gatland said: "We feel we have a number of options in the back row at the moment, so we've decided to call up Kieran to give us extra cover at scrum-half and to take some pressure off from a training perspective."
Fly-half Gareth Anscombe meanwhile will be assessed during the next 48-to-72 hours after suffering a groin problem prior to Saturday's win, which sent Wales through as Pool C winners into a quarter-final against Argentina on Saturday.
Anscombe, who produced a man-of-the-match performance in the victory against Australia, suffered a groin problem during the warm-up in Nantes that ruled him out of their final Pool C game and left the field in distress after picking up the injury whilst practicing kicking.
To add to Welsh woes, full-back Liam Williams is also an injury concern and was seen leaving the stadium on crutches after suffering a knee injury.
Gatland said: "Toby (Faletau) has broken his arm so he'll be out. We're just going to assess Gareth (Anscombe) over the next 72 hours. He's pulled his groin very high up. Talking to the medics, he's got a bit of power still in his leg which is a positive. It means he's not pulled it off the bone.
"We'll probably know in the next 48-72 hours what we need to do with him, whether we've got time for him to recover or we replace him directly. We've got to look at a replacement for Faletau, whether that's directly as a loose-forward replacement or whether we look at another position.
"We've got a few sore players, particularly in the backs, after today's game. If you do see Liam Williams on crutches, it's not that he's done anything significantly bad. He got a whack on the knee and the medics, from a comfort perspective, have put him on crutches to save him walking around a bit.
"He's got a knock and probably won't take a huge part in training in the early part of next week. But hopefully, he'll be fit for the quarter-final."
The quarter-final against Argentina will be played on Saturday October 14 in Marseille at 4pm (BST).
