He will return 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. Its season in the Alpine Ski World Cup is over, the French Ski Federation (FFS) announced on Saturday.
“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,” Stéphane Bulle explained during a video press briefing, the doctor of the French alpine ski team.
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 (northern Italy), where he was operated on to resolve an intra-hematoma. cranial.
“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 period of “coma” in quotes, you are really exhausted. »
“He seems to be doing really well.”
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.
-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 days to come), I am relatively calm. He seems to be doing really well at the moment,” Doctor Bulle insisted.
When asked whether Sarrazin, 30, could resume his career, was the French team doctor clear? “I have absolutely no idea where this is going to take us. I can’t tell you. But anyway, that’s our goal. »
