Toulouse (AFP)

His body told him to stop: accustomed to the XV of France in the 2010s, the Toulouse winger or rear Yoann Huget, aged 33, will retire at the end of the season.

With 62 selections with the XV of France between 2010 and 2019, he explained his decision in an interview broadcast on Sunday evening in the Canal Rugby Club.

"It's been two years that I drag an Achilles tendon injury, I have trouble recovering," said the three-quarter Toulouse broadcaster to the Top 14 broadcaster.

"That's why I made this decision to quit and let my body restructure because since 2015 I've been taking it into entrenchments that are a bit hard. I think it's a good time. "

Trained at the Stade Toulousain with which he began his professional career in 2005, but lacking playing time under manager Guy Novès, the Ariégeois went into exile in Agen (2008-2010) then in Bayonne (2010-2012) before returning to Ernest-Wallon for the end of the Novès era (2012-2015) and the advent of Ugo Mola.

Under the orders of the latter, he finally won a title of champion of France in the field, in 2019 against Clermont (24-18), in addition scoring the two tries of his team in the final.

His career with the Blues - 14 tries - will remain marked by two World Cup misadventures: failures in anti-doping monitoring deprived him of the 2011 edition, before a cruciate ligament rupture in the first match of the 2015 edition. against Italy.

On the other hand, he fully worked on the selection route in Japan in 2019, playing three of the four matches as a starter.

- In Blue, the dark years -

The failure in the quarterfinals against Wales (20-19) will spell the end of a decade-long international career but not the happiest, with a XV of France overtaken by the best nations.

First unwanted in Toulouse, Huget will also have eaten his black bread in a club before finally knowing the peaks with the Brennus shield of 2019.

“My career has been tough, but it has been beautiful,” he says.

"It was all hard to find, but I took advantage of everything I had. The beginning, the Stade Toulousain, the France team. You have to suffer a little, but hey, it was worth the shot".

Since the start of the season, Huget has played only two league matches.

This is due to recurring physical problems, but also to the emergence of the new generation of Toulouse full-backs embodied by Matthis Lebel and Lucas Tauzin, junior world champions with the Bleuets.

"There are good players who are arriving at the Stadium, there are young players, the training is taking on a big scale, there are other players that nobody knows yet but who are full of talent", he emphasizes.

According to Huget, Toulouse had offered him a one-year extension but he did not see himself "re-signing without having all the certainties of being 100%".

The native of Pamiers, who has not revealed a project for the post-career, has the possibility of leaving for a second league title in a row with Toulouse - last season was definitively interrupted by the pandemic of Covid-19 - June 25, 2021 at the Stade de France.

"I'm going to finish the year because I'm good, I'm a competitor, I'm going to finish it as best I can by giving everything I have".

His friend in club and selection Maxime Médard, also 33 years old, is also coming to the end of his contract next summer, with an additional year as an option.

© 2020 AFP