Jean-Marc Doussain committed to mental health in rugby

He was seriously injured with Lyon on the first day of the 2023-2024 top 14 season. Jean-Marc Doussain Unfortunately had just made his latest strides as a professional rugby player. At 33, the versatile half of opening had decided to end his career in June 2024. Since then, the former player passed by the Toulouse stadium continues to treat himself and also engages on the subject of mental Health With the neohero association of Raphaël Poulain. Jean-Marc Doussain entrusted himself at length to Actually rugby on his new life.

The serious injury of Jean-Marc Doussain

Actu : Did you retire a player after a serious injury at the start of the 2023-2024 top 14 season. What is your daily life today?

Jean-Marc Doussain: I am still on work stoppages. I am still well disabled by my leg in my daily life. I still have physiotherapists for my rehabilitation three to four times a week. I will not find the capacities that I had before the injury after my accident.

How did you experience the brutal stop of your rugby player career?

J.-M. D. : I knew I would have trouble stopping rugby. With my injury in August 2023, I started to be accompanied psychologically in January 2024 with a psychologist with whom it matched from the start. I felt good to confide in her, to talk about my injury, the problems of everyday life and my end of career. Even if I had not had this injury, I would have needed to call someone.

How would you need to be psychologically accompanied without this big injury?

J.-M. D. : Rugby always remains my passion and it will remain so until the end of my days. The injury has accelerated things. In the end, I had no choice with good sides and less good. I did not choose my outing. It’s hard of course but we all go there. But when you have no choice, there is not too much season or the fact of proving to yourself that you still have the level. So I think this work on me would have been necessary.

Concretely, how was the management of your injury?

J.-M. D. : I did my rehabilitation to the club for a year when you live in a world still around rugby. Even if I did not play, I still participated in meetings with the team. I hadn’t officially closed this page yet. From July, I was no longer coming to the club daily and I was doing my rehabilitation on my side but with the club. He also turned me to good people and nearby to physiotherapists who are next to the stadium.

Jean-Marc Doussain and mental health

How do you look at the subject of mental health?

J.-M. D. : Mental health is a real subject for professional rugby players and young people. It is also a subject of society currently. I invest myself on this subject to live it on a daily basis and to have lived it. Not that I was crushed by professional rugby, on the contrary. We live in a great world. Sometimes I find it difficult to read certain interviews where athletes complain about the hardness of managers and high-level sport. It’s hard but what a pleasure you have behind. No one forces to continue too. But mental health is an important subject with everything that is happening today in French rugby.

Currently, how is mental health into rugby into account?

J.-M. D. : There are two subjects today in mental health with mental preparation and psychology. Mental preparation targets performance. I had a mental trainer when I arrived at the Lou. Then psychology is to talk to a professional outside rugby to tell you about the professional and personal life. To be fresh mentally is to have a brain available for rugby when you are there full time. This is the base. My generation is late while the new generation is a little more open to be accompanied.

Why do you distinguish between mental preparation and psychology?

J.-M. D. : Both are dedicated to performance. But for me, mental preparation is an aid to performance, such as bodybuilding, physical preparation or technical training in rugby. Psychology is more a need to evacuate a certain daily pressure from everyday, family or coming from personal subjects. It is necessarily someone outside who must take care of him with a slightly more neutral and objective look compared to someone who is involved in the club.

When I arrived in Lyon, I took a mental trainer to move forward on my approach, my way of approaching the matches and the moments less well compared to rugby. I had mentioned subjects on the personal part but I should have called someone outside. It is important to differentiate both.

The conversion of Jean-Marc Doussain

After stopping your career, have you started to train hopes as part of a retraining?

J.-M. D. : I was asked by the club with the intermediary Fabien Gengenbacher who had offered to join the LOU training center. I had started in July but it was not possible. I had to stop because of my injury because it was too complicated and I had pain. Mentally also it was difficult because I thought I could do certain things that I finally couldn’t do. Little by little, I would get it. The club was ultra benevolent and telling me to take time for me. So I stopped in September.

Since then, how do you see the rest?

J.-M. D. : Right now, I’m doing a lot about myself. For a little over a year, I have been a little Marcus. So, I spend a lot of time with my child. It feels good too. It was a big engine in addition to my wife’s support. But in this period, the arrival of the little one was an incredible source of energy.

Do you have any idea about your retraining?

J.-M. D. : I haven’t thought about it yet. I still saw myself playing two years compared to energy and my mental freshness even if physically it was a bit hard. When I left Toulouse, I resumed my studies but without knowing what to orient myself. I lived my passion so much that mentally, I was not ready to make room for my retraining. I had so much pleasure that I did not leave room for the rest. This is not the best advice to give young people. For the moment, I don’t have too many ideas yet.

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• #Lyon Olympique University (Lou)
• #Health