season ended for Sarrazin, “very tired” and repatriated to France

French downhiller Cyprien Sarrazin, seriously injured in the head after a fall during training on December 27 in Bormio (Italy), was repatriated to Lyon on Friday and his Alpine Ski World Cup season is over, the team announced on Saturday. French Ski Federation (FFS).

«Cyprien was transferred yesterday (Friday) to a Lyon hospital, at Médipole, where he is hospitalized in a neurosurgery care department where he will begin his rehabilitation», explained Stéphane Bulle, the doctor of the French alpine ski team, during a video press briefing. Victim of a violent fall during the second official training before the downhills and super-G in Bormio, Sarrazin, 30, has since been hospitalized in Sondalo (northern Italy) where he underwent surgery to resolve an intracranial hematoma.

«We're going to start allowing him to do things that everyone else does, namely sit, eat, stand. Today, he still has a little difficulty opening his eyes, because he suffers from diplopia, that is to say that the reflexes which coordinate your two eyes are a little disturbed following the high pressure in the skull», continued the doctor.

A career continuation on borrowed time?

«He is very tired, he really has a hard time communicating. When you come out of this quote-unquote coma period, you're really exhausted.», continued the doctor. For the rehabilitation of the Haut-Alpin, world number 2 in downhill last winter, “we are talking about months, we are not at all talking about a recovery in weeks», which excludes a return to competition this winter.

The downhiller, winner of four races last winter including a resounding double in Kitzbühel (Austria), will continue his rehabilitation at the Henri-Gabriel center, still in Lyon, “which really has specificity in neurological rehabilitation for people who have had car accidents, people who have had enormous trauma», Specified the doctor.

«For the final assessment of potential injuries (which will be done in the coming days, Editor's note), I am relatively calm. He seems to be doing really well at the moment.», insisted Doctor Bulle. Asked whether Sarrazin could resume his career, the French team doctor was clear: “I have absolutely no idea where this is going to take us. I can't tell you. But anyway, that's our goal».

During this press briefing, the French team doctor who greeted “very good quality care» carried out by his Italian colleagues, revealed that Sarrazin's situation had deteriorated in the first hours of his hospitalization. “The hematoma (intracranial) quickly worsened and caused what is called compression. In agreement with the neurosurgeons, we made a burr hole. That is to say, a suction is done in the skull to empty the blood inside the hematoma.“, he explained.