Fibula fracture at 19: how the injury forged Tchouaméni before the World Cup semi-final

Aurélien Tchouaméni is expected to start in the World Cup semi-final against Spain, after missing the round of 16 against Paraguay and the quarter-finals against Morocco due to a thigh injury. Didier Deschamps tempered expectations in a press conference: “He is not 100% healed, but he is available again.”

This return to the world stage recalls a far more severe ordeal, which occurred six years earlier. At 19, while still playing for Bordeaux, Tchouaméni suffered a fibula fracture during training in particularly unfortunate circumstances: unbalanced during a challenge, Jaroslav Plasil fell with his full weight on the young midfielder’s foot.

The injury immediately placed him before a dilemma: wait without surgery or accept surgical intervention, at the cost of three to four months out and missing the U19 Euros. His father, Fernand Tchouaméni, recounts in L’Équipe the decisive conversation: “I told him: ‘Aurélien, it’s better to have the operation.’ He knew it meant three to four months out and that he would probably have to forget about the U19 Euros. I told him: ‘Forget the Euros. Think about it. We’ll accept your decision.’ A few minutes later, he told me: ‘OK dad, surgery.’”

The hope of returning in time for the tournament quickly faded. “He thought for a moment that by operating, he would be available for the Euros. Very quickly, we told ourselves we had to forget about it,” his father continues. But this period of forced immobilization proved formative. “That famous phrase ‘You have to come back stronger’, he really applied it. He learned to accept frustration and understood very early on that injuries are part of the job.”

His rehabilitation, begun at Clairefontaine and then continued in the United States, allowed him to meet Fabrice Gauthier, who has since become his regular physiotherapist-osteopath. It was also during this recovery that the future Real Madrid midfielder integrated mental preparation, nutritional monitoring and individualized physical work — habits that today form his reputation as a rigorous professional.