“Two years later, he still hasn’t asked me for forgiveness. Now my goal is no longer to forgive. » Having become quadriplegic since a Rugby match played in December 2022 as part of school, Mathias Dantin (18 years old) could find himself for the first time, this Tuesday (1:30 p.m.) at the court in Tarbes (Hautes-Pyrénées), facing the player who hurt him so badly. In the summons to the trial, the justice evokes a “delayed cathedral tackle”.
A qualification that the victim totally rejects, in a poignant report published by The Team : “For me, what he did cannot be described as a tackle, or even a cathedral tackle, it is an aggression. There was a desire to harm, to hurt. He took me from behind, without a ball, carried me three or four meters and pushed me into the ground, head down. »
The Dantin family has only received 20,000 euros so far
The consequences were then terrible for Mathias Dantin: two dislocated and fractured necks, two affected arteries, compressed spinal cord, after being placed in intensive care for two weeks. Prosecuted for “violence leading to permanent disability”, after the complaint against as his lawyer.
Nothing indicates that this amateur player at the Rugby Club Quint-Fonsegrives (Haute-Garonne) will be present in the courtroom this Tuesday. The main issue for the victim’s family will be to win their case financially, since they have so far only received 20,000 euros, Mathias’ license from the French Rugby Federation ( FFR) not having made it possible to obtain GMF insurance (in order to receive 4.5 million euros for such a handicap) as part of a match under the aegis of the National School Sports Union (UNSS ).
Mathias wants to “warn people about the situation of the disabled”
The Dantins therefore had to finance their son’s wheelchair (35,000 euros), while the fitting out of his room and the necessary medical equipment also represent colossal costs. “I want to be recognized as a victim, I am not collateral damage,” insists Mathias Dantin to The Team. This is why we filed a complaint, otherwise we had to settle for these 20,000 euros. »
Our file on disability
After having had to give up joining the special forces of the army that he was targeting before his accident, the young man now wants to “relentlessly alert people to the situation of the disabled”, as he does by very often intervening in schools. He also sees himself as a mental trainer for athletes. This trial this Tuesday will probably constitute a turning point in its reconstruction.
