Thierry Paiva

In February 2020 Thierry Paiva ruptured the patellar tendon in his left knee and lost months. In November 2023 he ruptured the one in his right knee and lost months again. Both knees, three years apart, in the same joint at the same place.

Loosehead prop at Stade Français, 1.84m and 115kg, and 30 years old.

Bordeaux-Bègles produced him and made him a French Espoirs champion in 2016, then loaned him to Carcassonne for a season in Pro D2. His first professional contract was signed on 6 December 2018 and ran to 2020, and an extension carried it to 2022. The first tendon went in the middle of that.

La Rochelle took him in 2022 and he was there for a French championship final in 2023, the season before the second injury.

France picked him at under-18, in a side that reached a European championship final in 2013, and never again. That is not unusual for a loosehead: it is the position where a career is judged over a decade of scrums rather than on early selection.

The 2023 final is the high point of the record, and he reached it in the middle of a stretch bookended by two ruptured tendons, which says something about how quickly a front-row forward has to rebuild after one.

La Rochelle announced his departure on 31 May 2025 and Paris announced the signing eleven days later, on the same day and in the same statement as Tawera Kerr-Barlow.

What the club has bought is a 115kg loosehead of thirty who has been through two of the worst injuries available to a front-row forward and come back from both. The tendon record is the risk and the recovery record is the argument.