29 is very often the age of sporting maturity. But for Caroline Drouin, it is the age that marks the start of a new life away from elite sport. On Instagram, the fly-half, capped 30 times by France women, announced that she was hanging up her boots.

“I pushed my body physically to its absolute limits“

The reason is a knee injury picked up at the end of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, which she played with France Sevens, and from which she has not managed to fully recover. “The truth is that I pushed my body physically to its absolute limits for that competition, fully accepting the consequences that followed.” explains the number 10, who also took part in the 15-a-side World Cup with France in 2017 and 2022.

“This last season spent injured challenged me a great deal, taught me a lot about myself and made me think about the rest of my career. I went through every emotion, between the hopes of a comeback and the disappointment of setbacks. (…). And in the end, even though I am better today, it is no longer on rugby pitches that I see my future” also writes the Brittany native, an Olympic silver medallist in Tokyo in 2021. A future that should first take shape with a return to her studies.