SENDAI CITY (FIBA World Championship) - France point guard Tony Parker was on Friday ruled out of the FIBA World Championship with a broken finger.

Parker sustained the injury after getting his finger caught in the jersey of an opponent during France's last warm-up game against Brazil on Tuesday.

He was initially ruled out of Les Bleus' opening game against Argentina, but on Friday - one day before the French team's clash with Argentina - coach Claude Bergeaud announced Parker would not play at all.

"Tony wanted to try and play with the injury but I didn't feel it was worth taking the risk." a distraught Bergeaud said. "He will not be playing in the tournament and will return to San Antonio to recover from the injury."

France captain Boris Diaw supported the coach's decision and encouraged Parker to get the injury attended to back home.

"With this kind of injury you never know what might happen," Diaw said. "He could play with his finger plastered but what if he gets hit on it again?

"If that happens, he will only make it worse and it will be tougher to recover from that injury."

Parker's absence changes the dynamic of the French team with back-up point guard Aymeric Jeanneau now thrust into the starting role, with Joseph Gomis promoted as a second string playmaker.

Prompting Parker's inability to play, France beat the 24-hour deadline for submitting rosters to tournament organizers FIBA and replaced the San Antonio Spurs guard with Mamoutou Diarra.

From Simon Wilkinson, Sendai
Exclusively for FIBA