“If he’s with us, it’s because he feels good”: still being prosecuted for rape, Jegou is training in La Rochelle

French international third-row Oscar Jegou, still being prosecuted for rape in Argentina, has resumed training with his club La Rochelle, coach Sébastien Boboul announced on Thursday, two weeks after Hugo Auradou in Pau. “Oscar has resumed training. He feels good. In any case, if he is with us, it is because he feels good,” confided Boboul, who did not wish to “dwell on Oscar. We already talk a lot about him, I am just happy that he is back with us at the training center.”

Oscar Jegou, 21, had participated in the last tour of the French team in Argentina. A starter during the first match against the Pumas in Mendoza, he had been indicted, with Auradou, for the “gang rape” of a 39-year-old Argentinian woman who had spent part of the night of July 6 to 7 in their hotel room after this match.

Concerns over Jegou’s mental health

In his resolution dated 30 August, in which he justified the authorisation to leave Argentina granted to the players of the French XV, the prosecutor in charge of the investigation, Darío Nora, stressed that, according to a medical report from the doctor from La Rochelle, “Oscar Jegou suffered from a severe reactive depression syndrome, as a result of the successive postponements of hearings intended to advance and resolve the case quickly”.

In the same document, the magistrate also mentioned written testimonies from relatives “expressing concern about Oscar Jegou’s mental health, with whom they communicate daily”. He added that these same relatives, including his agent, “perceive fragility, depression and vulnerability in him” due to the impossibility of “reuniting with his family and resuming his professional activity in his club”. This has now been done.