“Am I going to take it again?” The goalkeeper of the French handball team and Brest Cléopatre Darleux, victim of a concussion in December 2022, is not sure of being able to return to the courts, she explained in an interview with the newspaper L ‘Team, published Friday.
Asked about a possible end to her career, the 34-year-old player, crowned world champion in 2017 then Olympic champion in 2021 in Tokyo with Les Bleues, said she did not see this prospect “as a big void”. “If I don’t come back, there will be other things to experience,” she stressed.
Almost a year after her concussion, following a ball hit in the face, the Brest goalkeeper says she still suffers from “headaches”, cannot train daily and only does “cardio, no hands.” “I am no longer in When am I going to resume mode but rather Am I going to resume?”, adds Darleux who played his last match in the Champions League on February 11 against the Norwegians of Kristiansand (36-29 defeat).
The goalkeeper, who began her international career with Les Bleues in 2008, has set herself a deadline of “March, April”, in the hope of having a chance to participate in the Olympic Games in Paris (July 26 – August 11, 2024). If there were not the Olympics, “I would put less pressure on myself” but “a year after (the concussion), it starts to be complicated,” admitted Darleux, mother of a little girl.
The Blues must play their first preparation match this Friday in Caen against Senegal for the 2023 World Cup, organized from November 29 to December 17 in Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
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