Paris (AFP)

Confined in his country house near Troyes, the French international Gaëtane Thiney replaced the adrenaline of the matches with "new goals": "gain in tone, work my cardio, come back even sharper". But, she concedes to AFP, "nothing can replace football".

Since the start of confinement, the captain of Paris FC (34 years old) has "taken a step back" physically, from her village "of 150 inhabitants in the middle of the fields", and spiritually: "I love football, I live for that every day, but it's so secondary to the situation. "

Certainly, she lacks competition, but it suffices "to be patient", when others live "situations of pain, suffering, sadness" in the face of the coronavirus, she compares, aware of her "luck" to be in the open, in good health.

The days remain busy between her daily training sessions, her activities within the National Technical Directorate (DTN) of the French Federation, which she manages from a distance, her English lessons and her hobbies: "Gardening, mowing the lawn, stain wood ".

Pending the resumption of the Championship, suspended in mid-March, Thiney has gone "into mode + sports machine +". "Usually, the goal of training is the game. There is none. It took me a week to set myself new goals: gaining tone, working my cardio, coming back again sharper ", lists the middle of the 163 selections.

Like its partners, it complies with the training program concocted by the physical trainer of Paris FC, which includes individualized modules and a common core.

- Inequality -

The sessions of approximately two hours minimum alternate aerobic, muscle strengthening, sheathing or proprioception (exercises focused on posture and coordination), sometimes using video tutorials edited by the staff.

It is also a question of working on the changes of support, frequent ball with the foot but more difficult to reproduce in solo.

"The idea is to keep a solid base to be able to resume in optimal conditions," summarizes Thiney. But, she adds, there will inevitably be losses at the cardio level: "It lacks the repetition of high intensity efforts. Nothing can replace football".

To partially get around this pitfall, the native of Troyes runs around her house, bikes on her home trainer and multiplies the exercises in her garden.

"Between those who are locked up in an apartment and those like me who have a garden, the psychological burden is not the same. The possibility of exercising physically and keeping up the pace is not the same either. there are a lot of inequalities, "she points out.

- "Regeneration period" -

If the recovery still seems distant and uncertain, morale and motivation remain intact in the international, not selected during the last rally of the Blue.

"I don't feel like I'm tired of it or that I'm on vacation. Every day I train and I want to do more. Why? Because one day it will resume and because my body needs it. "

She even hopes to be able to "make fruit" what she perceives as a "regeneration period", by inflicting an unthinkable workload in times of competition.

"Throughout the year, we have a hard time developing certain muscular things, there is a certain amount of fatigue and load management to be in shape at the weekend", develops the player, co-holder with Eugénie Le Sommer of the record French matches played in the Women's World Cup.

The absence of collective training and matches therefore makes it possible to raise the level. "I take this opportunity to come out of this period even sharper, even more powerful. I tell myself that we must take the positive in any situation."

© 2020 AFP