Yael Trepy Leaves Hospital After Near-Drowning Incident
Cagliari breathe again. So does Yael Trepy.
Two weeks after a swimming pool accident that almost killed him and threatened to end his career before it had even begun, the young French striker has walked out of hospital in Sassari, smiling, upright, and cleared to start the long road back.
From holiday horror to hospital discharge
The incident dates back to 16 August, in a villa in the Baja Sardinia area near the Costa Smeralda. A summer break turned into a fight for survival when Trepy nearly drowned in the pool. The response had to be instant. It was.
Emergency teams arrived rapidly and airlifted him to the "Santissima Annunziata" University Hospital of Sassari. Without that chain of reactions, doctors are in no doubt: the consequences would have been catastrophic.
He was rushed straight into intensive care. For 48 hours, Trepy lay in a medically induced coma, his future hanging in the balance. Only after that critical window did the situation begin to tilt in his favour.
When he woke, the picture slowly brightened. Specialists moved him from intensive care to the pulmonology ward, where his recovery gathered pace. Crucially, tests confirmed he had suffered no major physical damage, a huge relief for Cagliari, his family and the wider football community.
“Not a miracle” – the system that saved him
Professor Pietro Pirina, director of the department of clinical and interventional pulmonology at Sassari University Hospital, summed up the turning point in a statement to "Sky Sport".
"The patient is leaving hospital in a generally good clinical condition, after a course of treatment that showed a gradual and marked recovery," he said.
He stressed that the progress was clear and consistent: "The tests carried out during his stay in hospital showed an improvement in his condition, which allowed us to plan his discharge from hospital with peace of mind."
Some observers have called it a miracle. Pirina chose different words. "If some have spoken in recent days of a miracle, we prefer to speak of the work of a system that has proven its effectiveness."
Swift emergency intervention, coordinated transport, and specialist care. That chain saved a young footballer’s life.
A smile, a farewell, and a new challenge
When Trepy finally stepped out of the hospital doors, he did so wearing a broad smile. His mother walked beside him. Inside, he had said his goodbyes to the medical staff, the general director and the medical director – the people who had watched over every step of his recovery.
The hardest, most dangerous phase is over. But his story now moves to a different setting.
Next stop: Arco, in the province of Trento. There, Trepy will begin a structured rehabilitation programme, designed to rebuild his strength and monitor every reaction of his body after such a traumatic event.
Once that phase is underway, further detailed tests will decide the question everyone in Cagliari is quietly asking: can he return to competition and regain his fitness clearance?
For now, the only certainty is this: Yael Trepy has been given his life back. What he does with it, and how far he can go in the game, is the next chapter waiting to be written.
