Article content

Rugby Canada flew to Japan Tuesday afternoon for the 2019 Rugby World Cup but without one of the men originally selected to travel as part of the 31-man squad.

Justin Blanchet, who left the pitch early in the first half of Saturday’s 20-15 loss to the USA with an apparent head injury, has been ruled out for the duration of the tournament.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Blanchet out, Larsen in: Canada down to the wire with injuries before heading to Rugby World Cup Back to video

His place is being taken by Josh Larsen, who was involved in Canada’s training camp and buildup games this summer.

Question marks still hover over another gritty forward Kyle Baillie, however. Late in the first half of Saturday’s gam, Baillie suffered a knee injury, which given the tape job appeared to be for a medial collateral ligament injury.

Sources told Americas Rugby News’ Bryan Ray that Baillie had indeed suffered such an MCL sprain; the minimum recovery time for such an injury is usuall two to four weeks.

Larsen joined the Canadian squad before the team departed for Japan on Tuesday afternoon.