Jean-Baptiste Sarrazin
modified to
10:32 p.m., January 01, 2023
Philippe Boutron, president of the US Orléans football club, was the victim of an attack a year ago during the Dakar Rally. After spending more than five months in hospital, the latter gave reassuring news on the Europe 1 Sport program (every evening from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.).
It’s a sad birthday for Philippe Boutron. The president of US Orléans was the victim of an attack while he was in a support vehicle: “We were going to the administrative checks. We were more than 300 competitors in this hotel, I think it was bad luck”, reacted the latter in the program Europe 1 Sports.
On December 30, 2021, while driving a truck from his team in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, from where the rally started two days later, Philippe Boutron was seriously injured in the legs in the explosion of a bomb placed under the pedalboard. He was then taking part in his tenth Dakar.
Hospitalized for five months
An attack which he manages to survive. Philippe Boutron is still hospitalized for five months in France. “It’s coming back little by little, I haven’t regained the use of my left leg, which penalizes me. There are plenty of things I can’t do, especially on this Dakar Rally, to my great despair. I’ll be at departure next year is a certainty”, he explained in Europe 1 Sports.
Of this explosion, no claims were made. “An investigation was carried out and it turned out that it was an attack,” he continued. An investigation is still in progress but for the moment the president of US Orléans has no more news. “I think it’s an isolated act,” said Philippe Boutron all the same.
“At the start of the next one (Dakar)”
But Philippe Boutron is not one to ruminate. He wants to forget this bad episode. “I’ve moved on. You have to look ahead. Rather than feeling sorry for myself, I’m trying to look to the future with a lot of optimism,” assured the president of US Orléans.
“I have good hope that it will come back and that I will be at the start of the next one (Dakar)”, concluded the motor racing enthusiast.