A decision that was eagerly awaited.
The French Rugby Federation submitted Tuesday to the Ministry of Sports its internal report on the real cluster that hit the XV of France (17 cases in all) and which led to the postponement of the France-Scotland match, scheduled for last Sunday and counting for the third day of the Six Nations Tournament.
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At the heart of the storm, the French coach Fabien Galthié was suspected of being at the origin of the massive infection, for having repeatedly broken the health bubble set up around the Blues to be able to participate in the Tournament.
As a reminder, when the FFR had announced its first positive cases, it indicated that it was a member of the staff (a physical trainer, as it will announce later).
At that time, Galthié had been designated a “suspicious case” in the morning, before being declared positive in the afternoon.
But according to the internal report of the FFR, the breeder is not the “zero patient” at the origin of the cluster.
Asked this Wednesday on RTL which was able to consult this report, Roger Salamon, former president of the High Council of Public Health which heads the medical commission of the Federation, cleared it.
"In my report I put it at the beginning, it is perfectly clear that what he did, whatever one might think, he had the right to do it and there was no particular risk," he says. -he.
"I'm not saying that to defend him (Galthié), he doesn't need to be defended, but I'm saying this because it's the truth"
Roger Salamon, who heads the Federation's medical commission
And Roger Salamon continues: “And besides, he is not patient zero, that is virologically evident from the distance at which he went to see his son and from the distance at which there were first case.
(…) I am not saying that to defend him, he does not need to be defended, but I say that because it is the truth ”.
In accordance with the line of defense of the FFR on this subject for several players, it is a player from the France team at 7 who would be at the origin of the massive infection in Marcoussis.
Obviously questions will arise.
Is this report objective and independent?
The FFR is under pressure and the Ministry of Sports was waiting for clear answers.
The signatories of this report are certainly recognized doctors who make up the Medical Commission, so we find Roger Salamon, but also Éric Caumes, head of the infectious diseases department at La Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital.
The latter had already hammered in recent days the thesis of the player of "France 7" as patient zero.
What will the ministry say about it?
The conclusions of the Minister for Sprots, Roxana Maracineanu, are now awaited.
In recent days, the president of the FFR, subjected to strong criticism, had repeatedly repeated his support for Fabien Galthié. "Roxana Maracineanu is within her rights, it is quite logical, and she is right to say that , if there are people who cheated, they should be punished.
Those who did not respect the protocol, we will not say bravo to them ”, declared Bernard Laporte on the stage of Stage 2. He had also recognized that the so-called sanitary bubble had been broken several times, by the coach but also the players.
But, according to the now official voice, the infection came from a player at 7. No luck ...
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