Handball veteran Patrick Groetzki reacted calmly to his unforeseen European Championship exit.
“It’s really very bitter, but unfortunately injuries are part of sport. And unfortunately it happened to me at the worst time ever,” the 34-year-old told “Mannheimer Morgen” just a few minutes after the friendly win against Portugal (35: 31), the end of which Groetzki no longer witnessed on the field.
The right winger from Rhein-Neckar Löwen was about to jump into the circle in the 23rd minute before he stopped his movement and finally left the field limping. He buried his pained face in a large towel on the sidelines, then went to the hospital.
“An initial radiological examination showed that the old foot injury, which had kept Groetzki out of action until the beginning of December, has recurred and is therefore leading to the European Championship exit for the Rhein-Neckar Löwen national player,” said the German Handball Association (DHB). . “We feel for him and wish him all the best for his upcoming rehab,” added DHB sports director Axel Kromer.
Tim Hornke and Lukas Zerbe are two other right wingers in the large 35-man squad for the European Championships. “We will now coordinate internally how we will react after this failure. We have until January 9th to report the official squad to the EHF,” said Kromer.
After Groetzki’s loss, the German squad that traveled to Cologne on Saturday includes 17 players. The DHB selection starts the home tournament on Wednesday against Switzerland. Other opponents in the preliminary round are North Macedonia and France.
