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Dupont set for Toulouse return after post-Olympic holiday / Photo: © AFP/File
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Dupont set for Toulouse return after post-Olympic holiday
French Olympic rugby sevens gold medallist Antoine Dupont returned to club training on Monday with an eye on playing his first game of the season for Toulouse this weekend.
Scrum-half Dupont, 27, has made sporadic appearances at the French Top 14 club's training base since winning gold in Paris in late-July but is in line to face Clermont on Saturday.
"The players present are all available," Toulouse said on Monday.
Since taking Les Bleus to Olympic success on home soil, Dupont has been named the Top 14's player of the season for 2023/24 and has made the most of his global fame while on a post-Olympic break.
He spent more than a week in the United States meeting Argentina football icon Lionel Messi in Miami as well as NBA legend LeBron James in California and visiting the Los Angeles Chargers' NFL set-up.
In Dupont's absence, record 23-time French champions Toulouse have started the new season sluggishly and are fifth in the Top 14 table with three wins from their opening five games of the campaign.
The six-time Champions Cup winners have lost two straight games including Sunday's game at local rivals Castres and in the previous round to Bordeaux-Begles, their first home loss since February 2022.
Dupont's return comes a month before France's 15-a-side team open their November Test series against Japan on November 9, before facing New Zealand a week later and Argentina on November 22.
Dupont will not return to sevens this season but has refused to rule out an appearance the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.
France's Olympic men's sevens success overshadowed off-field events that marred France's 15-a-side July tour of South America. Lock Hugo Auradou and flanker Oscar Jegou were arrested on allegations of raping a woman in Mendoza, hours after making their Test debuts.
The pair deny rape and were allowed to return home in September.
On Friday, the prosecutor's office in Mendoza recommended that the charges of aggravated rape against Auradou and Jegou be dismissed at a hearing set for October 18.
Following the same game, experienced full-back Melvyn Jaminet was sent home from Argentina for making racist comments on social media.
On August 7, France under-18 Medhi Narjissi was reported missing after going swimming in the sea in South Africa, where the team were preparing for a youth tournament.
P. Rasmussen--BTZ
