L-R: CRAIG JOINER, SCOTLAND. MAX BRITO, IVORY COAST (Photo by Ross Kinnaird/EMPICS via Getty Images)
Max Brito, who became a quadriplegic during his country’s 1995 Rugby World Cup group match against Tonga in the Ivory Coast, has died aged 54, his family announced Tuesday.
A handsome 27-year-old dreadlocked winger, he came into the tournament in South Africa full of hope for himself and his team and secured his starting job for the Tonga clash due to his brother’s injury.
But just minutes into the game in Rustenburg, he collapsed under a hard tackle from winger Inoke Afeaki and was crushed under an avalanche of bodies. Two of his vertebrae were shattered.
“The Brito family, his sons Mike and Anthony, sadly announce the passing of Max Brito, on Monday, December 19 at 6:30 p.m.,” read the family statement on the website of the French club Biscarrosse Olympique Rugby. .
“Max made his last trip with dignity and without suffering.”
Brito, despite undergoing several operations after the incident, could only move his head and upper body and had limited movement in his arms.
His wife left him and he was increasingly bitter that while some came to his financial aid (New Zealand legend Jonah Lomu auctioned off his 1995 All Black World Cup jersey), many did not.
“It’s been 12 years since I’ve been in this state. I’ve come to the end of my strength,” Brito told Le Monde newspaper in 2007.
“If one day I get seriously ill and I have the strength and courage to take my own life, I will.
“This damn handicap. It’s my curse. It kills me and I will never accept it. I can’t live with it and it will be with me for the rest of my life.”
However, as time passed, Brito came to accept his situation.
“I would say there were 13 or 14 years of fog where I didn’t know where I was,” he told the British newspaper i in 2020.
“The accident was very violent. But after that I had a spiritual enlightenment and I understood that it was necessary to accept my disability.
“And from that moment on, all the doors were open.”
