The world of the oval ball shaken by terrible news. Matthieu Lartot, famous journalist and rugby commentator on France 2, has announced that he is facing cancer for the second time. A test that he wanted to make public, Tuesday, April 18, in the media and on social networks.
“Since nowadays everything is known… as much as it is me who announces it to you”, he began on his publication posted on Instagram, before continuing. “For 3 weeks I knew that this moment would arrive. Today I am forced to leave the antenna to get back into the ring and fight cancer a second time! 26 years later, history unfortunately stutters”.
For the famous host of Stage 2, “there was a 1 to 5% chance that it would happen and it happened”. Far from being defeatist, the forty-year-old hopes to get up stronger from this ordeal. “It’s going to shake up very hard but I’m ready and very well surrounded. I’ll never be very far from the fields and the France TV Sport teams. And like the blues, my only goal in 2023 is victory”.
Asked in the newspaper Le Parisien, Matthieu Lartot gave his confidences on this cancer that he had already faced during his adolescence. “It’s a sarcoma, a rare and aggressive tumor that affects the soft parts. It came back in the knee after long, long years. It’s gone again”, he declared, specifying that “it’s not is not exactly the same sarcoma, but it is the same leg”.
Faced with the recurrence of his knee cancer, Matthieu Lartot will be subjected to various treatments in order to be treated. “There will first be chemotherapy. And then in a second, a fairly heavy operation on the sick limb”. If the host still does not know if his health will allow him to comment on the Rugby World Cup in France in the fall of 2023, an operation could well keep him away from the air for a while longer.
In an interview with Midi Olympique, published on April 23, 2023, Matthieu Lartot indicated that he will have to have his right leg amputated. “It’s a question of survival” he declared to our colleague Marc Duzan, because “some cells that we had irradiated did not disappear and a sarcoma three times larger than the first one appeared”.
This Friday, July 7, 2023, Matthieu Lartot spoke on social networks. In a post posted on his Instagram page, the sports commentator shared news about his condition following his leg amputation. “The path to rehabilitation began two weeks ago and morale is at the top,” he announced to his 56,400 subscribers.
“The amputation went well and the results of the anapath came in 2 days ago: they are excellent. The chemo worked and the operation did the rest”. Optimistic throughout his convalescence, the journalist nevertheless remains cautious. “It is not a question of declaring victory too quickly because this damn disease is sneaky but the treatments are behind me and now it will be a simple monitoring every 3 months for 5 years”.
Further on, Matthieu Lartot confides “[that] you have to know how to take advantage of small progress every day, step by step…”, before indicating some good news. “This weekend I will be able to enjoy my first ‘permission’ to find the family at home after 1 month of clinic and rehabilitation center”. An unfailing determination hailed by the entire profession, the world of sport and its fans on social networks.