Concern over health of French rock star Johnny Hallyday

France Soir leads with a photo of Johnny Hallyday and the headline “Johnny Hallyday awakes from induced coma.” The aging rocker is being treated for complications that arose out of an operation on a slipped disk at the end of November.

Aujourd’hui en France / Le Parisien also runs the healthscare surrounding “Johnny” on its front page. Last summer, the singer was operated on for colon cancer and his wife has revealed that he was in a very serious condition for around 48 hours at this time. The paper also takes a look at the French surgeon, Stéphane Delajoux, who operated on Hallyday at the end of November for a slipped disk. Was it a botched surgery? It appears that his current health woes have arisen out of an infection linked to this operation.

Several regional papers also lead with the story. The editorial of La Novelle République says that Johnny Hallyday’s health is not something to be taken lightly. The singer is a French institution.

“Some things are serious and not worth laughing about. Even les Guignols [the famous sketch comedy show noted for its irreverent treatment of French public figures such as Hallyday] is not laughing about this…
You don’t sully the flag in public, you don’t boo the national anthem,
you don’t desecrate churches or mosques…good wines should be served a wine glass, the list of recommendations is inexhaustible…and you simply don’t treat Johnny Hallyday’s health lightly.”

Other stories in today’s French papers:

Libération
Bankers bonuses are targeted

Le Figaro
The paper investigates the Swiss banker “Hervé” who gave a list of 4,000 French tax dodgers to the French authorities Was he paid by the French Finance Ministry for this information?

L’Equipe
“Absolutely Blanc”
Bordeaux’s manager Laurent Blanc is the man who the French Football Federation would like to see taking over from French manager Raymond Domenech after the South Africa World Cup.