The Cardiff Rugby No 8 was a second half injury victim to add to a pre-match warm-up casualty in Gareth Anscombe. Full back Liam Williams also picked up a knock to his knee.
“Toby has broken his arm so he’ll be out. We’re just going to assess Gareth over the next 72 hours,” said Gatland in the post-match interviews.
“He’s pulled his groin very high up. Talking to the medics, he’s got a bit of power still in his leg which is a positive because it means it’s he’s not pulled it off the bone.
“We’ll probably know in the next 48-72 hours what we need to do with him. Whether we’ve got time for him to recover or replace him directly.
“We’ve got to look at a replacement for Faletau, whether that’s directly as a loose-forward replacement or whether we look at another position. We’ve got a few sore players, particularly in the backs, after today’s game.
“If you do see Liam Williams on crutches, it’s not that he’s done anything significantly bad. He got a whack on the knee and the medics, from a comfort perspective, have put him on crutches to save him walking around a bit.
“He’s got a knock and probably won’t take a huge part in training in the early part of next week. But hopefully he’ll be fit for the quarter final.”
Faletau had started every game in France and was getting back to his very best form in time for the knock-out stages of his third World Cup tournament.
“It’s tough for Taulupe because he pulled his calf and didn’t take a huge part in the camps and pre-season work,” added Gatland.
“That’s why we continued to play him because we felt he gets better game-by-game. We felt he was back to his best.
“He was excellent against Australia with his footwork and carrying, taking kick-offs and giving us go-forward. It’s a big loss for us.
“We’ll just have to make a decision on his replacement and the balance of the back-row going forward, starting with next week.”
