Italy's Andrea Masi out of World Cup with snapped Achilles
Sunday 20 September 2015 00:03, UK
A serious injury to centre Andrea Masi compounded Italy's disappointment at losing their World Cup opener against France at Twickenham.
Masi lasted only 10 minutes of Saturday's game, which France won 32-10, before coming off with an Achilles problem that was soon diagnosed as a snapped tendon.
The Wasps centre will miss the rest of the tournament and is unlikely to be available for the Aviva Premiership side for a significant part of the season.
"Unfortunately Masi broke his Achilles tendon. This is the third centre we have lost in two weeks so it is a series of events that leaves us with a bitter taste in the mouth," coach Jacques Brunel said.
"We had injuries to three centres, Luca Morisi first of all, then we had an injury to Gonzalo Garcia, he is with us but is injured and I am not sure if he can play against Canada.
"Today Masi. We really need to analyse the situation because we don't have a lot of resources... possibly we will have to call someone in."
Italy were missing captain Sergio Parisse to a knee injury but Brunel refused to blame the absence of their talisman for the defeat.
"The loss of Parisse is of course an important factor, but I don't think it's the main reason for the defeat," Brunel added.
"France deserved to win, but the scoreline doesn't reflect the game we played. We didn't understand the refereeing (at) the scrum."
