{"id":5431,"date":"2026-01-08T21:24:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T21:24:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/?p=5431"},"modified":"2026-01-08T21:24:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T21:24:17","slug":"taulupe-faletau-six-nations-fitness-race-for-cardiff-and-wales-number-eight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/?p=5431","title":{"rendered":"Taulupe Faletau: Six Nations fitness race for Cardiff and Wales number eight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">Wales number eight Taulupe Faletau is set to miss the start of the Six Nations after suffering a calf injury playing for Cardiff.<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Faletau, 35, only recently returned from the knee injury which forced him to miss the autumn internationals in November 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The British and Irish Lion played a part in three United Rugby Championship (URC) derbies over the festive period and scored a try in the New Year&#8217;s Day defeat against Ospreys.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Faletau, who has won 109 caps for Wales, last played for his country in the first Test defeat against Japan in July 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The number eight will miss Cardiff&#8217;s two remaining Challenge Cup games against Racing 92 and Exeter and the URC matches with Benetton and Ulster.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I think he might miss the start of it, but I&#8217;m pretty confident he will be available during the Six Nations for selection,&#8221; said Blue and Blacks coach Corniel van Zyl.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wales number eight Taulupe Faletau is set to miss the start of the Six Nations after suffering a calf injury playing for Cardiff. Faletau, 35, only recently returned from the knee injury which forced him to miss the autumn internationals in November 2025. The British and Irish Lion played a part in three United Rugby<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rugby"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}