2023-05-05 23:57:09
At 31, Sébastien Vahaamahina is forced to retire. The emblematic second line of Clermont (2014-2023) has accumulated concussions. Ten in six years, some of which have gone undiagnosed. The last, on December 10 at the Marcel-Michelin stadium in Clermont, during a Champions Cup match against the Stormers (24-14) was one too many.
“It’s brutal and painful, very painful even, explains the player during an interview with the team. I understand that it is dangerous to return to a rugby pitch. »
But he didn’t really appreciate the manner and attitude of his leaders. During his recovery, he received no news from his club. “ In February, I wrote a four-page letter to the president (Jean-Michel Guillon) to express my dissatisfaction and my deep disappointment with the attitude of the club. A little later, it was again I who asked to meet the leaders. I understood that the ASM surely had other things to do than to take care of its old soldiers”, he explains then.
“I thought I deserved more respect. I am disappointed and hurt. »
The international with 46 selections, continues, very upset: “Simply that they recognize their responsibilities and that they honor their contractual commitments. Five months have passed and they could have made me a decent and clear proposal to end my story with the club properly. If they haven’t, they don’t want to. The club continues to buy time and hope that I give up. I thought I deserved more respect. I am disappointed and hurt. »
Trained in Brive, then passed through Perpignan, Sébastien Vahaamahina had a contract until 2025 with Clermont. But his club did not tell him that he no longer had his ASM license. It was through a letter from the interim president of the French Rugby Federation, Alexandre Martinez, that he told him…
“I played nine years in Clermont. Nine years of unfailing commitment to ASM and today I am ashamed for my club as my dismissal for incapacity is underway. I have a lot of trouble setting foot in the stadium. I told the leaders that they had ruined everything, as if they had erased everything. They should and should protect us. Players have duties, but also rights. They are in a hurry to finish me off. All of this is unfair. They do not assume. We are like cars for them. And when we’re screwed, we go to the scrapyard. »
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