Between absences linked to Covid-19 and injuries, the handball players of the France team are trying to prepare as best they can for Euro 2022 handball. With numbers still uncertain, it’s hard to say who will play from January 13 at the Euro in Hungary and in Slovakia. Eight players, including Nikola Karabatic and Hugo descat, were infected and are isolated.
At a press conference on Wednesday, December 29, several able players of the France team took stock of their situation from the handball house in Créteil.
Right-back Dika Mem, who plays at Barcelona, wanted to be confident despite a preparation that he recognizes unusual: “It’s sure that the preparation is a bit disrupted given the circumstances, but it’s like that for everyone. Personally, I live it well. I am fortunate to have fallen through the cracks of the Covid for the moment. I have a lot of envy because there is a great competition which arrives despite everything “, continued the right-back.
Even felt on the side of the pivot Nicolas Tournat who announces some adjustments : “At the beginning, we were a bit confused with the tests and everything that followed, but we remain professional. Despite the absences, we try to work to the maximum, whether it is physical or at the level of training. We still have enough players to play so we are training seriously. It’s a bit of adaptation but it doesn’t change much to our habits and automatisms. ″
When the cases fall …
8 players of the French handball team test positive for covid
… 17 days before the start of the Euro pic.twitter.com/5VpEZygdBu
– francetvsport (@francetvsport) December 27, 2021
The only uncertainty: will the players have an exit voucher for New Year’s Eve? “We have already spent the new year together last year so we’re used to it! “, has fun the left back, Romain Lagarde, who does not take offense. We live it pretty well but we know that we must be able to concentrate to work well so in the end, we don’t think about it too much at this sanitary bubble. ″
Winger Benoît Kounkoud and goalkeeper Rémi Desbonnet, excluded from the preparation course of the French handball team for Euro 2022 due to positive Covid-19 tests, found the Blues after a period of isolation and two negative tests, the Federation (FFHB) announced on Tuesday in a press release.
“Five players joined the bubble of the France team on Tuesday evening gathered at the House of Handball.” https://t.co/KKgabcI813
– French Handball teams (@FRAHandball) December 28, 2021
Three reinforcements, also subjected to two tests with isolation procedure, bring the strength available for training to 18 players. New arrivals are the half-center Nicolas Claire and left wingers Raphaël Caucheteux and Mathieu Grebille.
An arrival greeted by Romain Lagarde: ″We are happy to find them and now we can work completely, that pleases. We were playing in four against four and from today, we were able to play 6 against 6 with professional left wingers. ″
Guillaume Gille, the coach of the Blues, will not be able to count on either Nedim Remili, victim of a broken left foot a few days before the rally. With a base link back–pivot altered by absences and less center-halves, the France team sees its positions somewhat upset.
″Nedim’s injury gets me a bit drunk, recognizes Dika Dem, close to the center-half. After that it’s sport, these are the things that can happen. It’s something that affected me, I was a little sad for him. After the Olympics, there was talk of arriving in good shape for the European Championship. But we still have a great team and we will adapt to the position of center-half.″
Reshuffles and combinations that the Blues do‘will not have the opportunity to test at Bercy. The Olympic champions will not return to the Chambéry lighthouse for the second stage of the Golden League, nor at Paris-Bercy where they were to meet the Norvège and Denmark. However, two France-Egypt matches will be held at Creteil, January 7 and 9, with sanitary gauge. The Euro will start on January 13 against Croatia, in Szeged (Hungary).