De Villiers fell off his mountain bike

De Villiers is to undergo surgery on Wednesday and could be sidelined for around 10 weeks.

The 31-year-old sustained the injury at an Alpine training camp when he came off his bike on a mountain path and fell heavily on his right shoulder.

De Villiers will be replaced by Toulouse's Jean Baptiste Poux in the squad which has gathered for a training camp at Marcoussis, near Paris.

"It was a very tough decision to take but it was the only reasonable one," said France coach Bernard Laporte.

I'm sad but I'm aware the squad has to prepare for the World Cup Pieter De Villiers

"We are going to miss one of the best players in the world at his position but I had no choice."

"It's a sad day for all of us," team manager Jo Maso added. "We have to prepare for a World Cup and we had to protect Pieter's health.

"His club (Stade Francais) is going to need him in the future and France will need him too. So this is the reason why we called up Poux."

Poux, who has six caps to his name, was preferred to Perpignan's Nicolas Mas.

Marsh targets England return

France play a warm-up match against Romania on Friday before back-to-back Tests against England in Marseille on 30 August and at Twickenham on 6 September.

De Villiers' absence is a major blow to France, and another personal setback for the South African-born prop.

He was suspended from this year's Six Nations Championship after testing positive for traces of cocaine and ecstasy in a random test last December.

De Villiers returned for France's summer Tests in Argentina and New Zealand, but will now miss the game's global showpiece.

"It's part of an athlete's life," he said. "I'm sad but I'm aware the squad has to prepare for the World Cup, and the coach could not afford to put the preparation into danger.

"I'm now going to try to recover as soon as possible."