Handball: terrible blow for Siraba Dembélé, package for the Tokyo Olympics

The worst case scenario.

And, somewhere, the worst injustice.

Last Sunday, on one of the last actions of the quarter-final of the Champions League between his club Bucharest and CSKA Moscow (24-19), Siraba Dembélé-Pavlovic did not recover.

Touched at the heel of the right leg.

In tears, she must have been helped to leave the field.

A reaction which, of course, spoke volumes a little over three months before the Olympic Games.

And this Tuesday, the sentence fell: complete rupture of the right Achilles tendon.

She will be operated on this Wednesday and will then have to undergo a long rehabilitation.

End of the Olympic dream.

And just the end of his international career for the captain of the Blue who, at 34, had already announced that Tokyo would be the last step.

"It was to be my last competition with the France team and it's hard to swallow"

Siraba Dembele

"This injury necessarily falls at the least ideal time," she said in a statement released by the French Federation.

“It was to be my last competition with the France team and it's hard to swallow.

I'm also missing one of the most important moments with Les Bleues, we are in a great dynamic together and we had something to accomplish together this summer.

It was a continuation of what we've been going through together for almost five years and it's hard not to end this cycle with them.

You have to accept it, it's part of the game. I've been spared throughout my career, I've been lucky.

You have to look for the positive in everything.

We've been on crazy rhythms for years, it's always a very intense period and I'm not superhuman. The body lets go at one point. "

The Olympic title, the only one that will be missing from its formidable record

A real heartbreak for the one who aspired to come full circle in selection by winning the Olympic title, after having already obtained world recognition in 2017 and European one year later.

Only the Games still resisted this warrior, with a defeat in the final against Russia in 2016 in Rio.

Returning from a pregnancy in 2019, which saw him give birth to twins, to win the silver medal at the last Euro in December 2020, Dembélé-Pavlovic imposed himself in the group by his strength of character and his ability to never let go.

To the point of becoming one of the world references for his position, left wing.

This injury is therefore also a terrible blow for Olivier Krumbholz, the national coach, who refused, however, to think of anything other than the pain of his player: "We do not imagine that it ends there, we hope to see her again on a field, to see her playing again.

It is in her interest to do a good rehabilitation because there are longer-term issues for her, with a second career and a second life where her physical integrity will be just as important.

She must put all the assets on her side to recover. "

A message heard by the person concerned, who let go, always with the same mind: “I'm going to be able to rest and stay with my children, that's what I'm thinking about today.

But I intend to finish my career in a field and honor my contract in Bucharest until June 2022. It is very important for me.

I will do everything to get back in shape and feel good physically. ”

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