Brest Stadium. Loïc Rémy “not operational before mid-April” – Stade Brestois

“We will give him time to prepare, to adapt, but he is someone who still has ambition, who is hungry”, explained Grégory Lorenzi at the time of the formalization of the signature. by Loïc Rémy at Stade Brestois. It was then early February, the Finistère club had won a good point in Lyon and Islam Slimani had just left the tip of Brittany to join Belgium. At the time, the Brest leaders’ objective was to “prepare him for the last two months of the championship”.

“We are waiting for the medical green light but this will not occur for ten days. I don’t see how it could be operational before mid-April. And that’s the optimistic goal.”

As April approaches, the time has come to ask where the former France team striker is at. “We always prepare him, he works in the gym, with the physical trainer and he sees the doc regularly”, replies the sports director. “We always said to ourselves that we hoped to be able to count on him for the last matches of the championship, it is taking its course. We knew it would take time, we are not surprised, ”adds Grégory Lorenzi.

“We did not expect miracles”

Aged 36 and after several months without competition, Loïc Rémy still has to get his body back in motion before returning to the field. “The goal was to put him back in competition mode, with all the problems that entails”, explains Éric Roy, his trainer, adding that “the problem, when you return to heavier workloads after such a long cut (May 2022 to January 2023) and despite the physical maintenance, it is to have muscle glitches”. Rémy will not have escaped it, with a calf injury in particular.

Today, he has resumed racing but is still training individually. “We weren’t expecting miracles”, continues Roy, for whom “we are not yet considering having him follow collective training. And without that… We are waiting for the medical green light but this will not occur for ten days. I don’t see how it could be operational before mid-April. And that’s the optimistic objective,” says Éric Roy.

“Super invested in the group”

In the current state of things, we are therefore “at a projection over three weeks, and if all goes well. Because we are not going to do anything, even if he (Loïc Rémy) is super motivated. Because if tomorrow, he resumes and he hurts himself elsewhere, we would start from zero, ”continues Roy.

“When he is ready to play, we know very well that he will not be able to chain more than quarter-hour, half-hour, maybe an hour matches. But it is certain that we will not deprive ourselves of any vital force for the final sprint »

Lorenzi, too, plays it safe. “As I’ve always said, I’m not expecting anything in particular. We had simply planned to be able to count on him for the money-time. The day he will be fit, the coach will make his choice, knowing that even when he is ready to play, he will only be able to chain match ends of a quarter of an hour, half an hour, maybe one hour. But it is certain that we will not deprive ourselves of any vital force for the final sprint”.

In the meantime, Loïc Rémy, who benefited from a week of preparation in Madrid in February, remains “positive” according to the leaders of Brest. Giving his advice to the youngest and exchanging a lot with Franck Honorat in particular, he “is super invested in the group”, further notes the Brest coach, for whom Loïc Rémy “would be very disappointed if he could not be of service at some point. …”. The time trial continues.