Tony Gigot the saviour as Toulouse brace themselves for Mark Kheirallah exit

Sylvain Houles is hoping new captain Tony Gigot can be a Super League saviour for Toulouse Olympique, describing him as “the best player of his generation in France”.

The shock departure of Johnathon Ford and the possibility of full-back Mark Kheirallah also leaving because of Covid vaccination issues in France have left the newly-promoted club reeling.

With a squad of just 26 players to choose from, Houles is desperately seeking new recruits with less than two weeks to the Olympians’ first fixture in the top flight.

But the 40-year-old French coach is refusing to press the panic button.

He told Love Rugby League: “Of course, we need to bring in new players but as always they will only be the right players for us.

“The last thing we need to do is jump into signing any kind of player just to make up the numbers.

“Whoever we recruit will have to bring something positive into the group.”

Jussaume injury blow

Houles’ problems increased during Saturday’s pre-season trial game at Catalans Dragons when international centre Mathieu Jussaume had to be helped from the pitch with an ankle injury.

“You could see that he rolled it pretty bad,” said the coach.

“He’s been very unlucky there, he has had a big off-season and trained really hard and you could clearly see how distressed he was.

“It happened in the same game last year when we lost Paul Marcon for the season, these trial games always seem to throw things up like this, but hopefully Mathieu won’t be out for as long as Paul was.”

New captain Tony Gigot impresses

Houles said he was impressed with the way his patched-up 24-man team performed against the Dragons, and in particular his new captain Gigot.

He said: “Tony Gigot really stood up well in his new role as captain. It was a trial game so he only had 40 minutes but he was really good for us.

“He is the best player of his generation in France and he has matured.

“The plan is to have Tony in the halves but we had to switch him to full-back for the trial and he was solid for us.

“He is a real French character and he sometimes has this attitude on the pitch where he is whingeing and complaining which is something we spoke about last year and it has been addressed.

“He is growing with the game and enjoying the responsibility and I am very confident he will lead us with maturity into this season in Super League.

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“It’s clear from today’s performance that we have a team.

“We showed a lot of character and a good team spirit and it was so important against such a good team like Catalans.

“They are very strong and physically powerful but we showed that we can cope with that and I was impressed with the way we handled ourselves.

“It’s been really difficult, we have had a very tough three weeks thanks to Covid and it was clear that the players just wanted to get out on the pitch and play.

“We didn’t ask the players to do too many things, just keep the game simple and they did that very well.”

Kheirallah future

First item on Houles’ agenda this week will be the impasse between the club and Kheirallah.

Asked directly whether he thought 31-year-old Kheirallah would play again for the club, Houles said, “I’m not sure. We are working on that and at this stage we really don’t know what will happen next.”

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Meanwhile, former captain Ford has opened up on his decision to leave Toulouse because of his anti-vaccination stance.

“I’m not anti-anything,” Ford said, “I’m pro-freedom of choice, pro-health and pro-life.

“These past few weeks have been the craziest and most stressful of my life but I have made the right decision for me and my family.”

Ford said he was fully aware of the difficulties his decision has created for the club.

But said the current rules in France had made it impossible for him and his family to live the life they want.