The serious injury sustained by key prop Sylvain Marconnet is a major blow to France in both the short and long term, according to Les Bleus captain Raphael Ibanez.
Marconnet has been ruled out of the RBS 6 Nations Championship and the rest of the season after fracturing his fibula and tibia while skiing at the weekend.
The 30-year-old is France's most experienced prop and is a regular fixture in head coach Bernard Laporte's starting line-up.
Indeed, he has featured in all of France's games so far in this year's Six Nations, despite Laporte's insistence on rotation during this tournament.
Initial indications are he will be out for four months, but there have been suggestions he could miss the World Cup, which begins at the start of September.
Ibanez, Marconnet's front-row colleague for Les Bleus, was sad to hear the news, and admits the first problem will be finding cover for the Stade Francais star for France's crunch clash with England at Twickenham on Sunday.
'It is a really tough blow for him first of all, but also for his club and France,' said Ibanez.
'Moreover, he has been in very good form since the start of the season. Knowing him, he will be eyeing a return as soon as possible.
'For Twickenham, it is a problem - it is hard to replace a prop who has 71 caps.'
Marconnet was on a skiing holiday with his family in the French Alps resort of Sybelles when he suffered the injury.
He recounted to L'Equipe: 'My daughter obtained her first star on Friday. She wanted to do a descent with her dad.
'On Saturday, it rained so it was not possible. On Sunday morning, it was sunny again.
'I was on a ski-tow. The snow conditions were not very good. I had a bad fall, and I heard a crack.'
Marconnet, who will be operated on Monday, immediately contacted Christophe Dominici, his Stade Francais team-mate and one of the senior players in the French squad, about the accident.
The message was then relayed onto Laporte and team manager Jo Maso. Maso said: 'It is a blow for us, but especially for him. The important thing is he returns as soon as possible.'
Fabien Galthie, head coach at Stade Francais, added: 'It is catastrophic for Sylvain, because his World Cup is in jeopardy.'
Ironically, Stade are one of the few French clubs who do not ban their players from going skiing, a leisure pursuit in which injuries are common.
On the playing front, Les Bleus have made five changes to the squad that beat Wales 32-21 last time out for the match against England at the weekend.
Pieter De Villiers comes in for Marconnet, while there are recalls for Sale Sharks duo Sebastien Chabal and Sebastien Bruno, lock Pascal Pape and winger Cedric Heymans.
Of the 12 Les Bleus players who featured in the French Barbarians' 28-14 defeat to Argentina at the weekend, only fly-half Lionel Beauxis makes the squad.
Dimitri Yachvili has already been promised a start, in place of Pierre Mignoni, who has shone as France's number one scrum-half in their opening three games of Six Nations.
Yachvili has been the scourge of England in the past three Six Nations campaigns - he has scored 19, 18 and 16 points in Les Bleus' three successive wins over the world champions since 2004.
