Professor Jean-Henri Jaeger met the world of football at the end of the 1970s. The football doctor bent over the “most expensive knees in the world” according to his own expression: Raymond Kopa, Zinédine Zidane, Franck Ribéry , Ludovic Giuly, Marius Trésor, Patrick Vieira, Bixente Lizarazu, Robert Pirès.
The Mayennais Thierry Goudet also passed into the expert hands of Professor Jaeger. In 1989, the native of Château-Gontier was injured during a friendly match in Vitré against Laval (!), while wearing the colors of Stade Rennais: “I received a blow in the knee. Following that , I dragged this injury there for two or three months without knowing exactly what I had despite all the exams I could do. The professor who followed me made me meet Professor Jaeger during a conference in Brest He asked me to go see him in Colmar to perform an arthroscopy in order to have a deeper diagnosis. He detected a fracture of the cartilage. Following this, the professor made twelve holes in the knee and then there you go. Yes, I have passed through the hands of Professor Jaeger.”
On learning of his death, the 59-year-old Mayennais felt an emotion: “it does something, time passes. But when we had the good fortune to pass through his hands, he is still someone very well known. It also leaves good memories of having met a very nice person.“
The funeral of Professor Jean-Henri Jaeger will be celebrated on Monday February 14 in Salernes in the Var.