Corona and no end to the German handball players. There were also two other infected people before the final and meaningless EM main round game against Russia. The total rose to 15.
The German handball players have to complain about three more corona cases before their sportingly insignificant last EM game. Patrick Wiencek and Simon Ernst from the team of national coach Alfred Gislason tested positive for the virus, as did an unnamed member of the delegation who, according to DHB sports director Axel Kromer, “is not on the bench”.
The number of infected German players rose to 15 during the European Championships. Both Wiencek and Ernst were in the squad in the third main round game in the 21:25 against vice world champion Sweden on Sunday, only Wiencek from Kiel was used by the duo. Subsequent nominations are not planned.
The selection of the German Handball Federation (DHB) will play their last main round game on Tuesday (6 p.m. / ZDF) in Bratislava against Russia. Both teams no longer have a chance of participating in the semi-finals in Budapest.
Only four out of 17 players did not test positive
“I’m sorry for everyone, including the coach, that things aren’t going the way we imagined. For Alfred, it’s crazy that he couldn’t play a single tournament under normal circumstances,” Kromer said Incidents at the European Championship.
Of the 17 players who originally made the trip to the Slovakian capital two weeks ago, only four players did not test positive: captain Johannes Golla, playmaker Philipp Weber, backcourt player Julian Köster and right winger Lukas Zerbe. In addition to the positive tests in the team, the DHB reported a total of three cases from the German delegation during the course of the tournament, only the infection of assistant coach Erik Wudtke is known by name.
Players brought to Germany in patient transports
Of the players who tested positive, Kai Häfner, Timo Kastening, Marcel Schiller and Sebastian Heymann traveled home on Monday with ambulances. Luca Witzke, Lukas Mertens, Christoph Steinert, Till Klimpke, Djibril M’Bengue and Sebastian Firnhaber had already traveled back to Germany on Sunday.
Kromer did not want to finally judge whether it was right to let the tournament take place. “I don’t want to judge today whether the European Handball Federation should have made a different decision,” said Kromer. He would like to comment on this in detail after the end of the tournament.