The attritional and seemingly endless Top 14 season has appeared to have taken its toll as the French national team prepare for the upcoming Rugby Nations Championship

To call Les Bleus injury list extensive would be a massive understatement.

Fabien Galthié is already describing his squad as a team of “survivors”, and Captain Antoine Dupont is adding his considerable voice to emphasise the “burden on the bodies” and having so little downtime has inflicted.

The roll call of unavailability resembles an NHS waiting list.

Eleven players are out of the entire November campaign:

Gaëtan Barlot

Fabien Brau-Boirie

Gaël Drèan

Thibaud Flament

Marko Gazzotti

Matthieu Jalibert

Emmanuel Meafou

Noah Néné

Karl Sorin

Gabin Villlière

Thomas Ramos

Whilst eight are in rehabilitation with their return to play dates uncertain.

Dorian Aldegheri

Demba Bamba

Pierre-Louis Barassi

Julien Marchand

Régis Montagne

Lenni Nouchi

Florian Verhaeghe

Antoine Hastoy

France open their campaign on Saturday against Fiji in Lyon before facing South Africa six days later on Friday 13 November in Paris.

Their final pool match takes place in Paris on Saturday 21 November against Argentina.

It could well be a case of last man standing by then.