Institutionalized

Add another sad wrinkle to the on-going saga of Inglourious Bastareaud, Pulp Fiction (see thread & updates below).

French Rugby Club reports:

Bastareaud hospitalized after new allegations he was punched by team-mate

29 June 2009

Shamed France international Mathieu Bastareaud has been admitted to hospital with "severe psychological problems" in the latest twist of a tawdry affair that shows no signs of abating.

His hospitalization follows earlier media reports that the 20-year-old Stade Francais player had sustained his now infamous facial injuries after being punched by a teammate.

Max Guazzini, president of Bastareaud’s club Stade Francais, said the player had returned early from a Caribbean holiday and was now under medical supervision in a "specialized institution" in Paris. Guazzini said he was likely to remain in hospital for a fortnight and refused to give its exact location.

Guazzani blamed what appears to be some sort of mental breakdown on the "relentlessness of the press against a boy of twenty years. Journalists have gone to his home and that of his parents. It is completely destroyed, we must leave him alone," he told AFP.

The latest development is a further blow to both the player and to French rugby generally as a web of lies and half-truths slowly unravels.

Source.