The pillar of Stade Toulousain has not yet worn the red and black jersey this season. Operated on the left adductor in the middle of the summer, he resumes collective training this week and should play during this period of doubles. From Bayonne on Saturday?
First very simple question: how are you?
“It’s going very well. I’m going to resume collective training this week. I’m very happy.”
So the return is very soon?
“It will certainly be for the Stade Français weekend. I’ll see how I manage to digest the workload. So definitely for the Stade Français game, or maybe a little surprise for Bayonne on Saturday.”
“I was in a lot of pain”
Was it the perfect timing to have surgery?
“It was in agreement with the staff. I had quite a few glitches the last six months of last season. I was in a lot of pain so we decided to operate. The adductors made me suffer too much, I no longer have any pain. We did a lot of work for three months.”
We think of the World Cup by having surgery a year before?
“Of course we are thinking about it, but the season is so long. It would be like someone else to already think about the World Cup. We have to think about the upcoming rugby season.”
Hard not to do this autumn tour with the XV of France?
“It’s the law of the top athlete. I’m very happy to resume training, I still missed it a lot.”
What can be done to better manage this period of duplicates?
“It’s always complicated when you lose a third of the team but every year we know we have to have this kind of period. We will have to use the mistakes made last year so as not to repeat them. We will have to be a little more lucid and killer when it comes to scoring points.”