The Esteban Dorr and Florian Bourrassaud pair was forced to abandon before the semi-finals of the world table tennis championships. Esteban was injured when he celebrated his victory in the last match. Both ensure the bronze medal. Esteban spoke after her painful package.
Esteban Dorr, how are you?
Mixed. I want to say that I have a part of the body that is happy and the other part that suffers. It's a bit hard. It was not easy to make the decision, but in view of my state and the possibilities offered to us, there was no point in taking a risk that was not sure to work. And from the moment I can't even walk in a fluid way, there is no point in thinking about taking the racket and being competitive at that time, that is to say tomorrow. Although it is already much better compared to yesterday.
In terms of pain, where are you?
This morning, let's say it's okay. I manage to walk without crutches, while yesterday, I had trouble. It doesn't swelled too much, so it's still a good sign. In view of the tests, we know that it is not the crusaders, so it's already good. Tomorrow morning, I'm going to pass images, so we will have a clear heart on what it is. And we can see the protocol to follow as soon as possible.
Can this injury be serious and long?
We don't really know. We know that the meniscus is affected. Is there only the meniscus? We don't know. But we do not also know what is affected in the meniscus, if it is just the shock, the trauma which is very important, which hurts me, or if it is more a crack or more. We are sure of nothing compared to that, because we have no clear image.
And on a psychological level, we imagine that it is quite difficult. You probably first announced it to Florian …
Yes, that's hard. It is not that we had to decide or anything, it is that it was the only possible option unfortunately. This is what is hard, it's really the fault of luck. The physiotherapist told me before, I could have made this gesture, that is to say, collapsing like that, 200 times and it was enough once and this time fell on that moment. It's really annoying, that's for sure, because there was something beautiful to get. We felt that our ping was better and better, we felt better and better. Flo more, as there was this half, this lens, this little interior grail that was achieved, I really felt that it was directly released. It has reached him a lot the fact of knowing that I was forfeiting. It reaches me even more, it saddens me even more because Flo could not express themselves on this half and it is not every day that we can do a world semi-final.
It is true that we saw the images of the celebration, there was nothing special …
This is what is hard and that is why I cannot have any regrets, it is the fault of luck. It was not I who did anything or who tried a wacky celebration. It's just that it's the fault of luck and that's it, it's like that. I don't want to say that it's hard to accept because unfortunately I could do nothing differently. If I had to do it again, I would do it again. I collapsed and instead of having an indoor foot, I had my foot outdoors and it was the meniscus who flanked.
Are you going to watch the games anyway?
Tomorrow morning, I have the MRI and I will have a clear heart and I will be able to start the start of a protocol with the medical staff. Of course, I will be behind Felix and Alexis so that they go to get and that we can sing this Marseillaise all together on the box.
Doesn't that prevent you from getting on the podium, if?
No not at all. I manage to walk without crutches. Nor will I refuse this privilege of getting on the podium. Of course I can get on it.
Despite this, do you still manage to savor the fact of being a global medalist?
I want to say that it happened when we were half. If it had happened on the quarter -final, there you can really hurt. If you have something to hang on, it is that you have a global medal. After our elimination in 8th of Europe in October 2024, if we were told that we would be on the world box in May 2025. Do you say to yourself, where is the paper? Inevitably, we are super happy. But as I said, I have two parts of the body in me that contradict each other. There is one that is happy and the other less happy. We will now see how it evolves and what the images say before projecting further. For the moment, I live day by day. Once we will have the images, we can see what we can do.
