France's World Cup mascot, the cockerel Diomede, is to be sent home to his hens at a chicken farm near Brisbane, having been diagnosed as suffering from depression.
Before France had even played a match the Fijians had rumbled him as not being a genuine French bird, and now the strain of his double life appears to have caught up with him. He will leave the squad before France meet Japan in Townsville on Saturday.
France's hooker Raphael Ibanez revealed that flanker Patrick Tabacco, who grew up on a farm, alerted the team to the bird's plight.
Despite the allegations about his Australian identity, Diomede had bravely run along the touchline at all France's training sessions.
The team dismissed claims that it was the French players, not Diomede, who were depressed since the player who made the worst mistake in practice had to clean out his cage.
- INDEPENDENT
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