“The month of June is always a very complicated period, mentally or physically. » Wednesday, May 31, at the time of announcing the players selected for the last two matches of the French football team before the summer break, Didier Deschamps, alerted: “This year, the season has been exhausting. » At the end of a 2022-2023 exercise having, for the first time, incorporated a World Cup in the middle of winter, its troops – who face Gibraltar, Friday June 16, in Faro (Portugal), then Greece, in Saint-Denis , three days later – stick out their tongues.
The coach of the Blues was right. Two of the twenty-three retained were injured in their respective clubs and will not play the qualifying matches for Euro 2024: Real Madrid left-back Ferland Mendy, injured in the tibia; and Juventus Turin midfielder Adrien Rabiot, who suffered a right calf injury.
In the French women’s team, Olympique Lyonnais striker Delphine Cascarino had to have surgery at the end of May following a partial rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee. Selected for the 2023 World Cup (July 20 to August 20), she will not be awarded for the event.
“Physical and mental wear and tear”
Accumulation of fatigue, pressure, uncertainties… The end of the season has always been a risky period, especially for internationals. Ludovic Giuly still remembers this May 26, 2004. His club, AS Monaco, played in the Champions League final against Porto (3-0 victory for the Portuguese), but the striker had to leave the field at the 23e minute. “The season was very long, the stress and tension linked to the challenge led me to an injury”, he says. He will have to give up the Euro, which starts a few days later in Portugal. A blow.
“There is a natural phenomenon, the seasons are very long, it creates physical and mental wear and tear”explains Cédric Quignon-Fleuret, sports psychologist, who worked with AS Monaco from 2020 to 2022. “There is inevitably relaxation, often unconscious. To minimize the risk of injury, we set goals with the footballer, to plan for the last matches, but also for next season.abounds Julien Ralite, psychologist at Estac Troyes.
This psychological dimension is intended to help athletes stay on course and avoid this drop in alertness, which can be dangerous. The method for Cédric Quignon-Fleuret? Find the “motivational levers” who will talk to the player. “What he has to gain, to go get. To maintain a level of investment that is appropriate for the best possible performance”, he summarizes. Especially since the psychologist knows: the football world has a very short memory, “one day they are the best, the next day they are not so good”.
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