TOULOUSE OLYMPIQUE suffered a major opening-day setback, with former St Helens star Dominique Peyroux suffering a career-threatening injury during the 18-14 home defeat by Widnes.
The 36-year-old Cook Islands and Samoa second rower fell to the ground with a suspected torn Achilles tendon early in the second half at Stade Ernest Wallon.
Coach Sylvain Houles couldn’t hide his concern, saying: “We are hoping for the best for Dominique, but it doesn’t look so good.”
Toulouse were leading until a 70th-minute try by Ryan Lannon, and were denied a last-gasp clincher when Benjamin Laguerre was ruled to have knocked on over the line.
Houles added: “We’re disappointed and that’s normal. We have lost a match that we deserved to win.
“Three times we crossed the line and we were denied a score. We missed too many chances to finish the game and conceded too many points on the way.
“It’s a tough one to take but we can’t feel sorry for ourselves, we need to pick ourselves up pretty quickly.”
Toulouse are next in action at York on Sunday.
