Gavin Henson will not be playing his rugby at Toulon next season, but the fight he had with team mates after a recent match isn’t the main reason for his exit from the south of France.

Toulon’s abject performance on the pitch this season and the World Cup ended up being more important in the decision-making process.

Toulon team managed Tom Whitford explained: “The problem is we haven’t qualified for Europe this season, which means that our budget is going to be restricted which means then we’re slightly limited in our salary budget – that’s one reason.

“The second reason is we hope from his point of view he’s going to be picked for the World Cup to play for Wales, which means we’re going to lose a player for a three-four month period.

“So we’d rather not take that risk. Obviously there was an incident – and he wasn’t the only one at fault – let’s be honest about this – it wasn’t just his fault.

“Having taken everything into account we’ve come to a decision whereby we’re going to release Gavin and we’re going to wish him very well in the future.”