FC Paris: his injury, Charlety’s condition, his hopes… Confessions of Paul Lasne

“We expect a lot from him, and in recent games he took the keys to the truck,” emphasizes Thierry Laurie, referring to Paul Lasnay. An experienced (33 years old) midfielder who played 281 games in Ligue 1 (Ajaccio, Montpellier, Brest) was one of the Paris Football Club’s star recruits. But his first part of the season was derailed by a calf injury and he was only able to play 7 L2 games. But his return from recovery coincided with the awakening of “Paris”. A central host who breathes pace into the game, Lasne was also offensively decisive (he provoked a free-kick that netted a Ghilavoghi Po goal, he was Shahiri’s decisive passer against Valenciennes). Before the arrival of Dijon on Tuesday (20:45) in Charlety, he confessed.

Paris have not won at home since 6 August. Friday qualification for the French Cup against Valenciennes (3:1) did you benefit?

PAUL LASNE. Yes, especially as it follows two good performances in Po (win 1-0) and against Le Havre (0-0). Since the restoration, we have restarted a good momentum. This is very reassuring. It gives us a lot of energy and it’s very positive. What I also liked was that we had this clarity to fix things ourselves in real time on the field with the help of the staff.

The downside is the state of the Charlety field…

I don’t want to make a big deal out of it. But this venue is not worthy of a professional club, especially in Paris, by far the richest city in France. It’s catastrophic. But I’m not a gardener, I’m not the mayor of Paris… I’m just a simple player forced to risk my body because of this lawn.

Do you want to talk about the risk of injury?

Yes. Players told me that last year there were several long-term injuries due to this ground (Manduki, Guye, Butayb, Kante…). This must stop. There is already a technical aspect, because it is difficult to place the ball and build actions on such a lawn. But beyond that, it is very dangerous for our physical integrity. Huge clods come off the ground. When you finish a game on this field, it looks like you have played three.

Coming back to you, you’ve been picking up momentum since the restart, we see you setting the pace in the middle and even playing decisively offensively…

I project myself forward whenever I can. I finished the match with Valenciennes a little higher up the field. I am glad that I gave the decisive pass to Mehdi (Shahiri), who has been lacking playing time lately. I hope that this goal will call others for it. As for me, I had big muscle problems at the beginning of the season, an injury to the soleus muscle, calf muscle. This injury took much longer than expected. But now I feel complete control over my abilities.

You were one of the best recruits of the football club “Paris”, high hopes were placed on you. How did you survive this inaccessibility?

Trauma is learning how to live alone, outside of a group… I’ve already had serious injuries in my career, like the crusaders. But every time I come out of it broken, because I know the whole path that I need to go in order to return. We are starting from scratch. It is always difficult to live because we are no longer actors, we are distant, we can no longer position ourselves too much. That’s why I came to the game to still stay close to the group. But the results were disappointing. I got hurt in the stands. Injuries that are added to results that did not live up to the expectations of everyone, players, staff, president, management and fans, are inevitably thought provoking.

You were full of enthusiasm when you signed with Paris. Does this mean that you have regretted your decision to come to Paris, to L2?

Absolutely not. It is when it is difficult that we see those who are able to find solutions. The season is still long, we have a lot of time to improve and climb in the rankings. We are not far away, we have reached the 1/8 finals of the French Cup, I have high hopes. We must remain calm, resolute and, above all, maintain this good energy that has driven us since recovery.

Match sheet

PARIS – DIJON, Tuesday (20:45), Charlety Stadium (Paris XIII). Referee: Mr. Tulliou.

Paris FC: Demarconne – Bernauer, Chergi, Lefort – Gori, Manduki (cap.), Lasne, Iglesias, Khanin (or Khadzham) – Gilavogi, Caddy. Repl. : Nkambadio, Duniama (left), Geho, Khajam (or Khanin), Kore, Lopez, Chahiri, Kebbal. Entrance: Lori.

Absent. Filipović, Firi (injury), Mason, Butaib, Kante, Amel (recovery), Dabila, Karamoko, Mbala, Walengbe (selection).