“No parent is prepared for that”, the poignant secrets of Raphaël Ibanez on his son’s cancer

In the columns of Olympic MidiRaphaël Ibanez, the current manager of the XV of France, confided in cancer of his son Matéo, struck by acute leukemia diagnosed in December 2022.

Difficult to forget such news. In an interview with Olympic MidiRaphaël Ibanez returned with emotion on the moment he learned of the cancer of his Matéo son. In December 2022, the one who played with the Blagnac rugby club was thus diagnosed with acute leukemia, barely 22 years old.

2022, awesome year

For Raphaël Ibanez, this announced was “a total shock”. “He spent the first two weeks in resuscitation,” says the current manager of the XV of France. “We almost lost it, this big fellow of 1m94 … No parent is prepared for this kind of pain and quickly, we entered the group of caregivers, accompanying people.”

Two and a half years later, Matéo Ibanez is in remission, having even received the green light to resume rugby. In the meantime, the son of the former hooker was a major of his promotion at INSA, an engineering school in Toulouse.

“Matéo is by far the strongest of us,” shared his father.

For Raphaël Ibanez, the year 2022 had not been easy, with the disappearance in April of his best friend Fabrice Labarrière, on the sidelines of a kayak outing. Carried away by the current, Labarrière had been blocked by a heap of branches, under a rock. Ibanez had tried everything to save him, in vain. “I saw my best friend drowning before my eyes. I also almost stayed there,” said the one who wore the Blues jersey 98 times.