The center of Clermont, Wesley Fofana (34), announced Monday on social networks the end of his career, marked by 48 selections for the France team, but marred in recent seasons by numerous injuries: “After fifteen years in the ASM and the beautiful family of French rugby, a new page is turning for me. The last two years have sometimes been difficult to manage. An obvious observation that my body no longer cashed the level of requirement that professional rugby now demands. I therefore choose to anticipate the end of my career. »
Fofana’s contract in Clermont would still run for the 2022-2023 season. But on May 4, he had suffered a new injury, against Stade Français, resulting in an operation on the tendon of the right biceps. Yet another injury which undoubtedly precipitated his decision. Victim of a ruptured left Achilles tendon in January 2017 which kept him away from the field for nine months, Fofana was again seriously injured at the end of the same year, in December, when he was diagnosed with a hernia. neck, an injury that could have paralyzed him for life.
These serious repeated injuries had precipitated the end of his international career even before the start of the 2019 World Cup in Japan for which he was selected. With the Blues, Fofana played six Six Nations Tournaments. During his 48 selections, he scored fifteen tries, including a few individual exploits, such as that during the defeat (23-13) against England in the 2013 Tournament. Served in front of the 22 m of the Blues, Fofana had resisted not less than five tackle attempts before flattening in the in-goal of XV de la Rose.