Toulouse and Argentina second rower Patricio Albacete needs surgery on an eye-socket injury and will be out of action for a month.
"Albacete neeeds an operation and he'll need 30 days to recover," the UAR confirmed.
Toulouse had originally asked Argentina to leave Albacete at his club for a key Top 14 clash with local rivals Montpellier next weekend on the eve of Argentina's Test with Wales in Cardiff.
But in Thursday's Top 14 game with Racing Metro he took a nasty knock.
The UAR have also freed two key Biarritz players - prop Marcelo Kodela and centre Marcelo Bosch - for their clash with Perpignan on November 10.
They too miss the trip to Cardiff but will be free for the game against France in Lille November 17.
On a happier note, Argentina have recalled former captain, 35-year-old Felipe Contepomi, who last played for the Pumas in the 59-10 thrashing by France in June.
Albacete will be replaced by Tomas Vallejos, and Kodela and Bosch by Argentina-based Juan Gomez and Contepomi respectively.
Comments
GoWalesGo says...
@Paco
Didn't read!!!!
You ever heard of paragraphs brother?
Posted 06:07 07th November 2012
Paco says...
After having asked for more competitions for ages now that the argentine rugby has been granted a lot of support form the IRB, SANZAR and other rugby unions, Argentina is now facing the problem that they don't have enough players at 1st class level, so they are calling again a lot of amateurs to play against the top international teams. This fact may be a blessing for those amateur players who have the opportunity to gain experience at international level, while it might turn into a headache for the argentine rugby union (UAR) due to complaints from their rivals for not bringing their best squads. Just to mention what happened this year, while the top argentine players where preparing for the Rugby Championship, there was a rented team (Pampas XV) playing in the south african 2nd league's Vodacom Cup (which they won in 2011, while losing in QF in 2012), there was another group -mostly amateurs- playing the south american Championship (which they won by thrashing Brazil 111-0). Then there was the june matches against Italy and France (twice), but Argentina played with a C-Team (lots of amateurs and some experienced players) winning against Italy and the first match against France, while losing by a huge difference the second one (59-10). After that the Pumas' top team made their debut in the RC with some convincing games against the SH's big three (SA, NZ, AU), while at the same time another team (the "Jaguares", 100% amateurs) played the America´s Rugby Championship (which they won, winning all their matches against Uruguay, USA and Canada). A few weeks ago, there was another team playing the Seven's tournament (winning a Silver Plate, after losing against NZ and winning against Australia and France) and now there's the november european tour against Wales, France and Ireland, but playing with a mix of experienced (1st and 2nd tear) and amateur players. Big challenge!
Posted 17:13 06th November 2012