Corona shock in the DHB team: Kühn is canceled | free press

by time news
Bratislava.

With a heavy heart, Julius Kühn packed his things and left the European Championship quarters of the German handball players for an indefinite period.

Instead of chasing goals in the second preliminary round game of the DHB selection against Austria in the evening, the backcourt player had to move to a quarantine hotel in Bratislava after his positive corona test. “I hope that I can return to the team as soon as possible and continue the tournament,” said Kühn.

EM preliminary round without Kühn

In the preliminary round, the 28-year-old from Bundesliga club MT Melsungen is definitely no longer available for the DHB selection. The failure hurts, as Kühn had come up trumps in the 33:29 win against Belarus last Friday and contributed six goals to the opening victory at the European Championship. There was plenty of praise for this from national coach Alfred Gislason, who nominated Hendrik Wagner from the second division club Eulen Ludwigshafen. “He will join the team to expand our options,” said DHB sports director Axel Kromer with a view to the group final against Poland next Tuesday.

Isolated from his teammates, Kühn has to hope that they will make it into the main round without him. Then the 2016 European champion, who according to the association has been vaccinated three times and is symptom-free, could get involved again. The prerequisite for this: two obligatory PCR tests must be negative on two consecutive days. “We hope that Julius doesn’t get sick now,” said Kromer.

The European Handball Federation had reduced the mandatory quarantine period for infected players from 14 to five days just before the start of the tournament in Hungary and Slovakia – fortunately for Kühn, for whom the tournament would definitely have ended under the old rule.

Fears in the run-up to the European Championship

This is exactly what the veteran, who has scored 278 goals in 88 international matches, was afraid of. “We are tested regularly, and every time we hope that none of us get caught,” Kühn told the newspapers of the Funke media group shortly before the final round. “It really is the case that it can happen to anyone. From one day to the next, the tournament can be over for any of us.”

It is unclear where Kühn contracted the virus. “We’re not even starting to look for where he could have been infected,” said Kromer. In the first days of the EM, those responsible for DHB repeatedly emphasized the accurate implementation of all hygiene measures in Bratislava, which the sports director once again emphatically confirmed: “We followed all the rules.”

Rather, the worried gaze was always directed towards the co-host. When asked about the pictures of full halls, Kühn said before the opening game against Belarus: “When I look at Hungary, where there are almost no restrictions and almost everything is allowed, it gives me a bit of a stomach ache.” Now he’s in quarantine in the Slovakian capital and can’t do anything but keep his fingers crossed for the DHB team. (dpa)

You may also like

Leave a Comment