STUNNING BID FOR FALETAU AMID SIX NATIONS INJURY DOUBT
WALES are sweating on the fitness of Taulupe Faletau with the start of the Six Nations Championship just seven weeks away.
The Lions No.8 colossus suffered a third medial ligament injury to his knee in just over a year during Bath’s 24-20 Champions Cup defeat in Toulon at the weekend.
Last season, the 27-year-old twice damaged knee ligaments and missed more than three months of action – including the start of the 2017 Six Nations.
And Faletau picked up more knee problems at the Stade Felix Mayol at a ruck in front of his own posts when he was cleaned out in the 48th minute by French international centre Mathieu Bastareaud.
“I hope it’s not the same knee as he injured last season, but it doesn’t look good,” said Bath’s director of rugby Todd Blackadder.
“It looked like there was a ruck, he came in from the side and Toby tweaked his medial. It doesn’t look good, not for next week anyway.”
The Faletau injury came a day after the news that Lions skipper Sam Warburton will miss the entire Championship after knee surgery. There’s also fitness concerns over Lions and Wales back-row star Ross Moriarty, with the Dragons-bound Gloucester battering ram playing just one game so far for the Cherry & Whites this season. Moriarty flew home from the Lions tour in the summer after sustaining a back injury in the opening win over the New Zealand Barbarians and has now picked up a similar problem, with no date set by the Aviva Premiership high-flyers on when the 23-year-old will be back. Meanwhile, Faletau has been linked with a multi-million pound move to French giants Toulon. According to reports, controversial Toulon owner Mourad Boudjellal is ready to hand Faletau’s current employers Bath a €500,000 transfer fee to buy the 70-times capped Wales No.8 out of the final year of his contract.
And the three-times kings of Europe are also said to be ready to offer the 27-year-old an eye-popping €1m-a-year deal to make the move across the Channel to the Stade Felix Mayol.
The Dragons are also said to be interested in bringing Faletau back to Newport to form a back-row partnership with Moriarty.
They are willing to make him the highest-paid player in Wales, but won’t be able to match the wages being offered in France.
Faletau retains strong links with his former club and was at Rodney Parade this month to watch the thrilling 32-32 draw with star-studded Ulster in the Guinness PRO14.
Sources maintain Faletau is interested in rejoining the Dragons, who he left last year to link up with Bath.
But they would have to pay a transfer fee if they are to get him this summer unless the west country club were willing to part with him, which is an obvious stumbling block.
“Taulupe didn’t really want to leave the Dragons. If the then regime had offered him £20,000 more a year he would have stayed,” claimed an insider at the region.