There are some phobias that are more debilitating than others and for a high-level athlete, that of flying is particularly so. Fabien Centonze is touched by this and fears, with each trip, having to rise into the air, as he explained this Saturday to The Team.
“If I can avoid, I avoid,” claims the Nantes defender. I discovered him during a match in Ajaccio, I was 19 years old. I don’t remember the exact trip, but it was enough to move me a little. And it never went away. » The full-back even reveals that in the weeks when his team travels, he looks at the weather from Monday, then the sky on the morning of departure to judge the conditions.
Worse still, his phobia already affected him in the middle of a match at the start of his career. “If in the middle of the match it was windy or rainy, I thought about the plane home. » The former Messin assures that he is no longer as terrified as at the time but remains much more comfortable on dry land.
20% of French people continue to be afraid of flying
“I’d rather do a seven-hour bus ride than an hour’s plane ride,” he laughs. Before recounting that last season he made the Nantes-Auxerre journey in a van carrying equipment, rather than with his teammates by plane. The Nantes resident is therefore sometimes condemned to do violence to himself, without the possibility of taking medication, which would affect his physical condition.
According to him, his case is not isolated. “I’ve been around a lot of players like me, but who don’t necessarily talk about it,” he certifies. Which would not be surprising, given that 20% of French people admit to being afraid of flying.
This phobia has already cost careers in sport, particularly across the Atlantic. Royce White, 16th in the NBA Draft in 2012 and promised a great career, was stopped in mid-air – literally. The winger never managed to overcome his phobia and couldn’t handle the thousands of air miles swallowed up by an NBA franchise each season. As a result, he was quickly sidelined by the managers and only played a handful of matches before going into exile in Europe.
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