Choosing your own ending is a luxury not granted to every rugby player. While the luckiest get a final home appearance in front of family and supporters at the end of a season, others have to accept the anonymous exit through the back room. That was the case for Gaëtan Germain, whose last official match dates back to 26 November 2022. That day, the Aviron Bayonnais goal-kicking full-back, formerly of Bourgoin, Racing 92, Brive and Grenoble, suffered a serious knee injury on the turf of Montpellier’s GGL Stadium.

The verdict came down: cruciate ligament rupture. Normally, a professional sportsman, with access to extensive medical support and cutting-edge facilities for his rehab, can hope to be back in competition after six to eight months. In theory, at least, because in practice Germain would never recover from that injury. In an interview given to our colleagues at Midi Olympique, the full-back with a boot as powerful as it was precise opened up about the battle he waged for more than two years to be able to play rugby again, in vain.

“I told my wife, this isn’t possible any more”

“I had two spells at the Cers, two stays at Clairefontaine over a month and a half. The knee was a bit better, but it was never spot on, and alongside that I had a whole string of muscle niggles, which held up my return to training. It was never-ending. I was only able to start training with the group again in spring 2025“.

The end of a long tunnel, he believed. But once again, his hopes of a return would run into the reality of his battered body. “Even though there was progress, the sensations when running weren’t really coming back. There were evenings, at home, when I was limping: one evening, two evenings, three evenings in a row. I told my wife, this isn’t possible any more. (…) So I told the staff, the next morning, that it wasn’t possible any more. I’d have loved to be able to play again and bring something to the team, but I did everything I could…”.

In agreement with the coaching staff, Gaëtan Germain thus gave up the final year of the contract that tied him to Aviron Bayonnais. A sad epilogue to a solid career in which he established himself as one of the most reliable kickers in Top 14, having finished the championship’s leading points scorer three times, in 2014, 2016 and 2017. A player who was also dangerous ball in hand and who won the Pro D2 title in 2022.