30 Jun 2009

Bastareaud enters psychiatric hospital

6:00 am on 30 June 2009

The French rugby player Mathieu Bastareaud has been admitted to a psychiatric hospital in the latest twist to the story of his fabricated assault in Wellington.

20-year-old Bastareaud admitted last week to lying about how he sustained facial injuries following a night out with team-mates.

Bastareaud originally told team officials that he had been set upon by up to five men following France's second Test defeat to the All Blacks in Wellington, later withdrawing his claim and admitting that he had in fact returned to his hotel drunk and fallen, striking his head on the bedside table.

According to his Stade Francais club president Max Guazzini, Bastareaud has been forced to seek help at an unnamed Paris facility due to "severe psychological problems", and will remain under observation for two weeks.

Reports have surfaced in France that Bastareaud's injuries may have been caused by a punch from a team-mate and not by falling on a bedside table, but these claims were stringently denied by both Louis Picamoles and Fulgence Ouedraogo, who were named by reports in newspaper Le Parisien .