The first big meet of the French season is underway in Compiègne this weekend. The elite team from Cercle des Nageurs de Marseille is there without one of its star swimmers, Camille Lacourt, who announced his withdrawal from the meet last week.
Lacourt has been suffering from hip pain that has forced him to pull out of every meet he has entered since the French national long course championships last April. On Friday, as the meet was getting underway in Compiègne, Romain Barnier, Lacourt’s coach at CNM, met with the press and explained Lacourt’s absence.
Barnier said that Lacourt went through a long diagnostic process, because they “didn’t want any errors. There is something around his hip that could be very dangerous. If we make mistakes, his hip could be damaged to the point of needing a replacement. Because his stroke is different, he has done significant damage to his hip over time.” He added that he would leave the specifics of the diagnosis to Lacourt.
On Saturday, Lacourt himself addressed the issue with the sports daily L’Equipe. He explained that he had been diagnosed with a benign tumor on his hip. He plans to undergo a procedure on Tuesday that will involve injecting a liquid to “accelerate the elimination of this tumor” and should be able to get back into the pool by the end of next week. His goal is to participate in the next meet on the calendar: that of Gênes on November 1-2.
Hopefully Camille will be fine very quickly. All the best.
major respect for this man and his battle against cancer. its really neat to see a high level athlete who cares about people and is passionate about his field
Benign tumor means that it isn’t cancerous…
A tumor is a growth of abnormal cells. The fact that it is not “cancerous”, means the tumor will not metastasize, or spread to another location in Lacourt’s body; however, that doesn’t mean the tumor does not put pressure on nerves in the area ( causing pain/weakness) or blood vessels (limiting circulation), or that the growth in the region has not/might not eventually affect the growth of bone/muscle/other tissue in the area, limiting function and potentially necesssitating joint replacement. I wouldn’t minimize the seriousness of his problem.
The fact that his doctors have finally diagnised the problem and created a treatment plan is good news, because from what I’ve read it sounds like he’s been struggling with this issue for… Read more »