EM squad is shrinking again
In the DHB team there are the Corona cases 12 and 13
01/22/2022, 2:11 p.m
For Christoph Steinert and Sebastian Firnhaber, the European Handball Championship is likely to end early. The duo tested positive for the corona virus, increasing the number of cases in the German squad to 13. It is even the second time for Steinert.
The German handball players continue to be affected by the Omicron wave at the European Championships. Backcourt player Christoph Steinert and circle runner Sebastian Firnhaber tested positive on Saturday. The duo from the Bundesliga club HC Erlangen is the German team in the remaining main round games against Sweden on Sunday (6 p.m./ARD and in the live ticker on ntv.de) and Russia will not be available next Tuesday.
In total, the DHB selection has already recorded 13 corona failures in the finals in Hungary and Slovakia. It is extremely questionable whether national coach Alfred Gislason can even have a complete squad of 16 in the duel with Sweden, who came second in the World Cup. There was initially no subsequent nomination. The 62-year-old Icelander is still hoping for infected players to return to the tournament. “It would be like Christmas for me,” said Gislason after the Norway game.
Instead, there are new cases. The CT values of the PCR test carried out on Friday evening indicated that Steinert and Firnhaber each had a low level of infectivity, the German Handball Association announced. Both players went into isolation in their hotel rooms. The two new cases are a major setback for the DHB team after there had previously been four consistently negative test series.
Steinert already had a striking result last Wednesday. However, after several negative PCR tests, the 32-year-old was allowed to play against Spain at short notice on Thursday. So short-term that he missed the warm-up before kick-off and was only on the field in the second half. Firnhaber has had five negative test results since arriving last Tuesday. Apart from a joint warm-up on Thursday, he had no contact with delegation members without an FFP2 mask, the DHB said.