France's World Cup hero Antoine Dupont in good spirits - but doubt remains

The scrumhalf has undergone surgery after sustaining a facial fracture during France's 96-0 thrashing of Namibia last week.

There is hope that Dupont will return in time for the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals, but France's health manager Bruno Boussagol says that he has not been cleared yet.

Boussagol explained on Thursday that there are still processes that he needs to go through to be cleared to return to action.

Follow all the Rugby World Cup fixtures in our live score centre

"He's doing as well as possible," Boussagol told reporters.

"We're six days on from his operation, and the swelling has gone down.

"He's having some pain that's linked to the head injury, but which has nothing to do with the post-op; he is doing very well. He's in high spirits. He's quite confident.

"The plan for him is a visit to the surgeon, which is going to happen fairly quickly. It's a post-surgery visit to assess his progress and to give the first instructions.

"Depending on the surgeon's instructions, we'll wait for him to come back, which we hope will be scheduled fairly quickly, with some guidelines.

Selected matches will also be available on SABC Sport.com's live streaming channel

"Firstly, to assist him in relation to this shock, because when you have a shock like that you inevitably have secondary lesions, so we're going to have to do specific work on his jaw joint; there's specific work to be done in terms of rehabilitation."

The team health manager added that Dupont will also go for a neuro check-up as there are concerns around a potential concussion.

"There's also the question of concussion," he said.

"There will be a neuro check-up in a week's time, as soon as he arrives, to assess his condition so that he can gradually resume physical activity.

"So for the moment, the news is reassuring, we're doing our best to support him, and we hope he'll be back fairly soon."

Meanwhile, teammate Melvyn Jaminet said that the media coverage of Dupont has had no impact on the squad.

READ MORE: Jacques Nienaber urges caution over Handre Pollard's long-awaited return