This book should feature prominently on the bedside table of sports practitioners.
In "Football Traumatology & Return to play" (Editions Vigot, 150 pages, 28 euros), Franck le Gall, the doctor of the Blues since 2012, details, in particular, 45 clinical cases, from the injury to the recovery on the ground.
If he did not wish to respond to criticism from Marseille and then from PSG to the address of his staff, after the positive Covid tests by Mandanda and Mbappé during the September rally, he evokes the pandemic and its consequences.
He is also moved by the hellish pace imposed on the players.
Since your departure from OM in August 2019, what do you do between the Blues gatherings?
FRANCK LE GALL.
I opened a practice in Marseille and another in Cassis with physiotherapists and orthopedic surgeons.
I take care of amateur athletes of all ages and all sports.
This is another exciting aspect of the job.
I have also just written my fourth book
(Editor's note: prefaced by Didier Deschamps and Jean-Marcel Ferret, the doctor of the Blues between 1993 and 2004)
.
What motivated this approach?
I had this idea in mind for a few years now.
It took about two years to come up with a finished product.
I wanted to tell stories from the field.
I began by recalling what the daily life of a club doctor consists of.
I also expose 45 clinical cases from day 0 until the player's return with the group, the famous
Return to play
.
They are commented on and discussed with colleagues, doctors, surgeons, physiotherapists, physical trainers or podiatrists.
It is a question of presenting a relevant criticism of what has been proposed to the player and, more generally, of the pathology.
How has the pandemic disrupted the daily life of a selected doctor?
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She started by heckling the calendars.
Euro 2020 has, in particular, been postponed for a year.
During the first gathering of the Blues in September, the Covid monopolized all minds.
In October, he fueled conversations less.
In November, for the first time, we were more focused on upgrading players who arrived at Clairefontaine with physical problems.
The PCR tests, the positive or negative subject are no longer debated.
We would have had to deplore 5 or 6 proven cases, it would probably have been different.
With only one case
(Editor's note: Wissam Ben Yedder)
, there was no reason to be in the news.
Wissam Ben Yedder was the only positive case for Covid-19 during the gathering of the Blues in November.
LP / Frédéric Dugit
Have you noticed in some internationals depressive tendencies linked in particular to the spring confinement?
Some have experienced it more or less well, but it did not go further.
At least, there were no great moods among the Blues.
Only a little anguish or anxiety over some unknown illness and not being able to get out.
When I found them in September, none of them reported a cataclysmic period.
They all felt that they were not among the most to be pitied.
Do you share the concern of many technicians who denounce the infernal rates to which players are subjected?
Worrisome, is that the right word?
This is worrying.
A priori the calendars will not be lightened.
Coupe de France tours, in particular, have been postponed to 2021. For the first time, three matches were on the program for the Blues in October, then in November.
This will still be the case in March.
I'm waiting for real statistics, but we have the impression that there have been more injuries since the resumption of the European championships and cups.
Some clubs, like Liverpool, deplore ten, it's huge.
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At this rate, do you fear repetitive injuries by Euro 2021?
Before each competition, there is breakage and players are dismissed due to injury.
It is up to the staff to find the right balance, the best combination between the doses of work, the means of recovery and the playing time. A whole prevention must be put in place.
There, we simply evoke the physical, but there is also a psychological wear and tear that is exerted at one time or another.
This is a parameter to be taken into account.
To make matters worse, the winter break is reduced to heartache.
This is all really problematic.
Do you understand, therefore, the reluctance of certain clubs to release their players in selection when they are not at 100%?
Of course.
I was in club post not so long ago.
It's fair game.
The real deadlines for major teams are at the end of winter and spring.
They need to have players at their best during these crucial times.
From the moment the various staffs work in the interest of the internationals, it must go smoothly.
The clubs know that we take care of the players, that they are not mistreated in the selection.
That we will take care of them.
We are not there to make them in bad shape.
The priority of Didier Deschamps is always the health of the player.
He will never make a decision that could jeopardize it.
How do you rate your relations with your club counterparts?
They have improved a lot over the years.
With the means of communication now at our disposal, we share data, we have access to operating reports, we send each other the images from the scanners… We dialogue regularly during the season.
The exchanges are constructive with my French or foreign colleagues.
At the beginning of 2020, I went to the clubs to see them.
Without being great friends, we now collaborate effectively.
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Should we be worried about some athletes who are a priori in perfect health, but who could take time to recover from a possible Covid-19 infection?
We have seen, in the case of a long Covid, a clear decrease in respiratory capacity in some, significant states of fatigue for others.
We are therefore very vigilant.
The club doctor is based on the assessments made after the illness before authorizing the return to the field.
It should be ensured that the player has recovered all of his abilities from objective and relevant elements.
Would you be in favor of a priority vaccination of professional athletes?
Priority, frankly, does not strike me as the appropriate term.
Nursing staff, the elderly, or those at high risk should be the priority target.
But I am not worried.
There will be enough doses on the market to make them accessible to top athletes, starting with those who play team and contact sports where the risk of spreading the virus is higher.
Moreover, if the sportsmen who serve as an example, especially among young people, are vaccinated, that could encourage a part of the population to imitate them.
Afterwards, as everywhere, there will be some recalcitrant.
It is not possible to make vaccination compulsory.
But when you have vaccinated 70 to 80% of a locker room, you have good collective immunity.