France's gold medal hopes at the FIBA World Championship were rocked on Friday when point guard Tony Parker was ruled out of the tournament with a broken finger.

Parker suffered the injury in the Stankovic Cup while playing against Brazil.

		Tony Parker averaged 11.9 ppg at EuroBasket 2005 and helped France win the bronze medal.

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

"Tony wanted to play," a sombre Bergeaud announced in Sendai.

"He wanted to try and play with the injury but it's not worth risking a further injury so he will not take part in the event."

Parker's absence changes the dynamic of the French team with back-up Aymeric Jeannea now put into the starting role.

Yannick Bokolo is now the team's back-up while France beat the 24-hour deadline for submitting rosters to tournament organizers FIBA and replaced Parker with Mamoutou Diarra.

France's run to the bronze medal at last year's EuroBasket and the form of their players had placed them among the favourites to win a gold medal but now they will have to make an unwanted adjustment in very little time.

The French must finish in the top four of Group A to advance to the eight-finals.