End of the season for Elisei

Terrible blow for Valcea and Romanian team: the season is over for the best left wing from the 2008 Women's European Championship, Valentina Elisei Ardean. Crusciate ligament, collateral ligament and meniscus injury was the terrifying diagnosis of Ardean – Elisei who will not step on court until July 2010 again.

The best left winger of the 2008 European Championships and 2005 World Championship, Valentina Ardean-Elisei was injured during the first half of the Oltchim Valcea vs Zvezda Zvenigorod game on Sunday. The doctors tried to put Elisei back on her feet for more than 3 minutes, but finally they had to carry her out of the court.

"I felt like my knee was going in one direction while the rest of my body was trying to go the other way. The pain was such that I was not able to breath for some seconds,” Elisei said when she was still hoping that her injury could turn out to be smaller.

Unfortunately the verdict of the doctors was merciless: the season is over for Valentina. The news was a real blow for the players of Oltchim.

"I was afraid this will be the opinion of the doctors. It’s the worst nightmare for a handballer. I just hope that she will have the strentgh to go ahead,” encouraged her Valeria Bese, Valcea’s back player, who just recovered from an injury after six months.

Valcea and Romanian national team coach, Radu Voina, was also disappointed:

"Valentina is one of the pillars of Valcea. It will be very hard without her on court. Moreover, she was one of the players I wanted to count on in our fight for a medal at the World Championship in China. The joy felt over beating Zvezda has gone now.”

Not the first injury

After winning a silver medal at 2005 World Championship with Romania, Elisei-Ardean missed the 2007 Championships also because of an injury. She was operated in Kiel back then and it took more than a year for her to play again. Now the staff of Valcea wants to send Elisei to Belgium and they already contacted Dr. Martens who agreed to take care of the player.