“Cyprien was transferred yesterday [NDLR : vendredi] in a Lyon hospital, at the Médipole, where he is hospitalized in a neurosurgery care department where he will begin his rehabilitation,” explained Stéphane Bulle, the doctor of the French ski team, during a video press briefing. alpine.
“A lot of difficulty communicating”
Victim of a violent fall during the second official training before the downhill and super-G in Bormio, Sarrazin, 30, has since been hospitalized in Sondalo where he underwent surgery to resolve an intracranial hematoma.
“We're going to start allowing him to do things that everyone 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 hyperpressure in the skull,” the doctor continued. “He is very tired, he really has a hard time communicating. When you come out of this quote-unquote coma period, you are really exhausted,” the doctor continued.
For the rehabilitation of the Haut-Alpin, world number 2 in downhill last winter, “we are talking about months, we are not at all about recovery in weeks”, which excludes a return to competition this winter.
End of career?
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 a specificity in neurological rehabilitation for people who have had car accidents, people who have had enormous trauma,” the doctor said. “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,” Doctor Bulle insisted.
Asked whether Sarrazin, 30, 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 praised “very good quality care” provided by his Italian colleagues, revealed that Sarrazin's situation had deteriorated in the first hours of his hospitalization. .
