Three teams in Poland sent to isolation • The Spanish league faces 13 cases of infection • CSKA opened training without coach Dimitrios Itudis • And above them all hovers the tragedy of Michael Ojo • In Europe preparing for the start of a complex season in the shadow of the Corona

• Ojo. Find his death on the floor during personal training

  Photo: 

  IPI

1.  league Polish first European basketball will return to the court after corona season, which led to a break almost all fronts. In less than two weeks, on the 27th of the month, it will happen. The groups are already at the peak of preparations, but the virus has not gone anywhere, and in Poland they have received clear proof of this.

Three teams were recently sent to solitary confinement during tests in preparation: Arca Gdynia who revealed that one player was infected with the virus, Schlesk Wroclaw who faces two Corona cases in the team, and Spoina, Wroclaw's rival in a training match.

It is estimated that the league will open on time, but there is a question as to whether all the games in the opening round will take place in order. Either way, this is a signal for what is going to happen this season, and we have not yet talked about the European factories, where the teams will have to move from country to country, and about the fact that winter is ahead of us.

In Italy, too, the Super Cup games will start at the end of the month with the participation of all the league teams, and a few more leagues will open next month. But with all due respect to the great desire to return, from first impressions it seems that it will not be easy at all to move the wheels as long as the Corona is still here and European basketball is troubled, and rightly so. 

The illusions of opening the season with a crowd in the stands have long been shelved, and the main interest that employs European basketball is a significant number of cases of infection, which have lit many red lights. In the meantime, this is another disruption to the preparations, and the hope is that these infections will not disrupt the start of the season.

In the Spanish league, no less than 13 infected Corona were found in pre-season tests. Five of them in Fuenlabrada, three in Gran Canaria, two infected in Basconia and one case in Malaga, Real Betis and Tenerife. The names have not been released, so it is not possible to know whether they are players or staff members. The rest of the players who came out negative can start training, but the preparations of these six teams for the start of the season in a month, have already been hampered.

In Italy, meanwhile, only two contenders are known - Austin Day from Venice and a player or teammate of Virtus Bologna, and CSKA Moscow have opened their training without coach Dimitrios Itudis who is positive for Corona on a home holiday in Greece. Have been discovered and others yet to be discovered.

Itudis. CSKA opened training without him // Photo: Alan Shiber

2. Above all hovers the tragedy of Michael Ojo, the Red Star player from Belgrade last season, who died suddenly during training about two weeks ago, and the suspicion is that it is related to corona disease. Ojo had no contract for next season, but he stayed in town and trained independently. 

Red Star president Nebuja Chowicz, who was asked by the Nigerian chin's family and agent to help clear the cause of death - defined as a heart attack - said the player was diagnosed with coronary heart disease, had pneumonia and had already received medical approval to return to activity very moderately. He did so intensely.

3. The story of the corona and the first wave of infections creates quite a few headaches and worries for organizations and teams in the near future until we officially see the leagues get underway. Some countries already have a contingency plan, and others have already made decisions following the situation. 

In Belgium, for example, the season opener was postponed to November 7. In Turkey, an opening was announced on September 26, but it has already been decided that if there is a worsening of the morbidity, the league will start in January and take place in an abbreviated format. Just assume that all leagues are preparing themselves for unexpected situations that will be along the way.