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| - France hooker Pierre Bourgarit will miss this summer's tour to Australia with a knee issue, his club La Rochelle said on Tuesday. The announcement about Bourgarit comes less than 24 hours after Les Bleus captain Charles Ollivon was ruled out for up to nine months with a cruciate ligament tear. Bourgarit, 23, won the last of his five caps in February's win at Ireland and played 50 minutes in Saturday's league loss at Clermont. "Injured during the trip to Clermont, our hooker @BourgaritP needs to have knee surgery. His season is unfortunately over," the Top 14 side tweeted. "We wish him a good recovery and we hope to see him back on the field soon," they added. Bourgarit will also be sidelined for La Rochelle's run-in to the French league season. La Rochelle, who lost in May's European Champions Cup final, will play the winner of Saturday's play-off between Bordeaux-Begles and Clermont in the Top 14 semi-finals. France will face the Wallabies three times in 10 days next month with the first Test in Sydney on July 7. Head coach Fabien Galthie will be without players featuring in June 25's Top 14 final for the opening game of the tour due to quarantine rules in Australia. Flanker Ollivon is likely to miss Les Bleus' November series which includes a games against New Zealand. "I will take care of the cruciate tear as needs to be, take the time that it needs, to be present at the big matches that are to come and will do everything to come back stronger," the Toulon back-rower tweeted on Tuesday. mca/smr/iwd/gj
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