Namibia captain Johan Deysel has been banned for six games following his tackle on Antoine Dupont that left the France skipper with a facial fracture.
Deysel was sent off during the Rugby World Cup Pool A match that Namibia lost 96-0.
Deysel's yellow card following the head-to-head tackle, with France leading 54-0, was upgraded to red on review.
He will miss Namibia's final World Cup fixture against Uruguay on Wednesday, plus five other matches to be determined. If Deysel completes World Rugby's coaching intervention programme, the ban will be reduced to five games.
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Deysel appeared before an independent disciplinary panel, when he accepted that foul play had occurred and had warranted a red card.
The panel decided that the entry point was a 12-match ban, then reduced by 50% due to mitigating factors such as his disciplinary record and apology to Dupont, plus another match removed on completion of tackle school.
World Rugby said that the panel categorised Deysel's action as "being at the top end of the scale of seriousness of offending" with regard to the "degree of recklessness involved in the offending, the vulnerability of the victim player and the significant injury to him".
Dupont underwent surgery in Toulouse following the incident, which has cast a huge cloud over France's World Cup campaign.
There remains a possibility of the hosts losing their star player for the rest of the tournament.
France's final pool game is against Italy in Lyon on 6 October, before a quarter-final - probably against South Africa - the following weekend.
If Les Bleus reach the semi-finals, they take place in Paris on 20 and 21 October.
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