It is a disappearance which has moved the world of rugby and which raises a real incomprehension among people who have known Jordan Michallet. The professional rugby player killed himself on January 18 by jumping from the fourth floor of a building under construction. “All the elements suggest three successive suicide attempts, the last having unfortunately succeeded”, a police source told AFP at the time. Almost two months later, the questions remain the same for the relatives of the former sportsman, who are still wondering how this could have happened.
When he left that morning, we had plans for the afternoon. It’s very hard to understand
Married since June 2020 with his partner Noeliethe young woman tries to understand, but she misses the elements. “He left nothing. Not a word. Not a letter. When he left that morning, we had plans for the afternoon. It’s very hard to understand”, she underlines, very moved, in a testimony given to The Team. An observation shared by Jordan Michallet’s friends like Louis Marrou, one of his oldest friends: “No one saw it coming”he says.
If some of her friends indicate that Jordan Michallet seemed in rather good shape in the weeks preceding the tragedy, Noélie remembers that he was not at his best. “He hadn’t been well for ten days. He slept badly, didn’t have much of an appetite. He was so exhausted that he couldn’t have his usual motivation anymore.remembers the widow, who has already spoken in the press lately.
Jordan Michallet victim of a “suicidal impulse”?
However, as she explains, all was well in the life of the Rouen rugby player. “He had just extended, he felt very good at the club, he had wanted to be a dad for years, he was the happiest of men”she says, before revealing the conclusions of the investigators: “The police and the doctors explained to us that he had made a suicidal raptus”. According to doctor Jean-Jacques Bonamour Du Tartre, psychiatrist, suicide specialist, interviewed by our colleagues, it would be a “suicidal impulse”. “There is a form of evidence of ending one’s life, as in a trance”he says.
An act difficult to understand therefore for those close to Jordan Michallet, like his wife Noélie, still so saddened and who now wishes to help rugby players who are victims of psychological problems. “It would give me a little strength and a little purpose in my life, which has been shattered since January. It’s tragic to come to such a situation”she concludes.
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