The French handball team, since Sunday in preparation for Euro 2022 (January 13-30) and hit hard by the explosion of cases of Covid-19, has avoided a "
small disaster
", a estimated Monday the doctor of the Blues. In addition to tests upstream on the 24th, the players summoned to the France team were tested, then "
immediately isolated in individual rooms
" until the result of these new tests, "
which made it possible to avoid a first small disaster.
", Judged Dr. Pierre Sébastien by videoconference Monday.
"
We discovered that among the people summoned, three more players were found to be positive and even a member of the staff,
" he explained.
After Nikola Karabatic, Benoît Kounkoud and Yannis Lenne, initially summoned but positive for the coronavirus, the Federation (FFHBH) announced on Sunday that five new players, including the Olympic champion Hugo Descat, were in turn positive.
New tests Tuesday
A new round of tests on Tuesday should confirm that the thirteen players who entered the health bubble and started training on Monday are indeed negative. Reinforcements are expected, but these new players "
will enter with the same protocol for entering the group,
" said the doctor of the France team. "
We avoided the cluster, because we put in place an isolation procedure before the results of the tests,
" he insisted.
"
In the context of an explosion of cases in recent days, we had to ensure the arrival of players who have already tested negative," said coach Guillaume Gille.
Which delays the arrival of reinforcements a bit.
"
Today, we are a little handicapped to play handball in large spaces and to occupy all the positions
", he admitted, in particular in the absence of left winger.
"
The work is of good quality even though we are small and it's complicated to do six against six
", noted for his part captain Valentin Porte.