He was just a teenager when doctors discovered he had knee cancer. a synovialosarcomaa tumor as rare as it is aggressive. Matthieu Lartot had discovered that he had this disease, more common in children and adolescents than in adults, after an injury sustained during a rugby match. In an interview at Paris Match in 2020, the journalist had told “we thought it was a sprained knee and from there appeared a lump inside my knee. We could have missed it and it developed in silence and it was more serious.” The specificity of his tumor is that it is not uncommon for it to destroy the limbs or joints where it is located, thus requiring amputation, very often in the legs. In April 2023, the journalist decided to go public with his fight against the disease after a relapse of his cancer. A few weeks later, in July 2023, he had to be leg amputate and follow a rehabilitation program to walk again.
An amputation that was inevitable
Despite these months of hardship, where he was lucky to be supported by his wife and two children, Matthieu Lartot is gradually recovering from the hair of the beast. In the columns of Paris Matchhe assures “that was it or I died. There is no choice! You have to accept that your life will not be the same. I’m not one to mope. (…) I project myself into the positive. Soon I’ll be able to ski, cycle, everything I couldn’t do for 25 years. After sickness there must be life.” This great sports enthusiast had indeed had to step back from his post as a commentator in Stage 2 to take care of his health. An absence during which he regularly communicated with his subscribers on Instagram about the reality of his illness and where he also pledged to raise funds for the league against cancer. Although, strictly speaking, it was not the relapse of his cancer that caused his amputation, he revealed to Paris Match. “My prosthesis had a limited lifespan”he explained. “The surgeon who operated on me even told me that even if there had been no new cancer, it would have been impossible to change the prosthesis. I would have lost my leg. It was inevitable.“He also confided in his next objective: to return in September to comment on the Rugby World Cup. We wish him!