Europe 1 with AFP 10:24 p.m., January 10, 2023

French skiers Matthieu Bailet and Victor Muffat-Jeandet, injured in falls in recent weeks, are forced to end their season, the French Ski Federation (FFS) announced on Tuesday less than a month from the Worlds at home. .

The French Ski Federation announced on Tuesday that Victor Muffat-Jeandet and Matthieu Bailet were forced to end their season after their heavy fall, respectively in Bormio and Adelboden.

Heavily fell in Bormio (Italy) on December 26, Bailet was first dismissed from the slopes due to a concussion, but he also suffered from a rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament of a knee, specified the FFS.

Bailet, aged 26, embodies the next generation of the French speed team (downhill and super-G).

Last season, he took 2nd place in the super-G in Saalbach (Austria).

“The blow is very difficult to take with this injury, the biggest of my career. Especially in a season like this with the organization of the World Championships in France (…) The hardest part starts now and as usual I will cope," the skier wrote on Instagram.

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Knee injury for Muffat-Jeandet

Victor Muffat-Jeandet, who had already missed nearly three months of competition at the start of 2022, including the Beijing Olympics, fell on Saturday in Adelboden (Switzerland) on Saturday.

Already operated on for a broken nose, he also suffers from an injury to his left knee (lateral lateral ligament and meniscus), which requires an operation.

"I expected so much worse that in the end it's borderline positive. Life is crazy sometimes, a year and a day later (his ankle injury, editor's note), back to square one. I don't know why fate sends me to this new ordeal but I have already accepted it”, he reacted on his social networks.

Bronze medalist in combined at the Pyeongchang Games in 2018, Muffat-Jeandet (33) has eleven World Cup podiums, in combined, giant and slalom.

It's a double blow for the French alpine ski team, which loses two outsiders for the podiums less than a month before the Courchevel-Méribel World Championships (February 6-19).