Sweden hope for Andersson's return

Sweden's national coaches Staffan Olsson and Ola Lindgren have not given up hope to get their star player Kim Andersson fit from his shoulder injury in time for the EHF EURO 2014.

Kim Andersson has not played much for his club KIF Kolding Kobenhavn this autumn – and he has not been able to shoot from the distance at all.

For the time being, the 31-year-old right back is not playing any matches.

Instead he is following a special training regime which is laid out to see his left shoulder recover without the need of surgery.

However, it is still unknown when he will be back in action for the Danish Champions League participants and for the Swedish national team.

"It is still uncertain," as Staffan Olsson puts it.

In the absence of Kim Andersson and several other injured key players, a number of young talents got the chance when Sweden took part in the Super Cup in Germany the past weekend.

Sweden started by losing 24:29 against the German hosts and eventual winners of the tournament.

What followed was a narrow 28:29 defeat against Poland, which used the tournament as preparation for EHF EURO 2014 just like Sweden, and finally Egypt were defeated 40:29.

"We were quite content with the performance in Germany. We had a poor start to our first two matches, and that meant that we had to work hard to get back into those games, but from then on, we did well, and we can only be happy with our last match against Egypt," Staffan Olsson told ehf-euro.com.

Young guns impress

Olsson and his coaching partner Ola Lindgren had the opportunity to test some young talents in the tournament, and some of them impressed the coaches.

"Our young left winger Andreas Berg did very well, and so did Jesper Nielsen on the line. Among the more experienced players, I was particularly content with Jonas Larholm," added Olsson who also saw the Swedish injury list grow longer as line player Jesper Nielsen broke his nose in the match against Egypt.

Right now, Olsson has some difficulties when it comes to judging the strength of the Swedish team ahead of the EHF EURO 2014 in Denmark in January.

"It depends a lot on how many of our injured players we get fit. Johan Jakobsson should be back soon, and we are also hoping for Kim Ekdahl du Rietz, Jonas Källman, and of course Kim Andersson to get fit in time.

Kim Andersson is the player for whom the uncertainty is the largest, but we still hope for him to get fit from his shoulder injury in time," Staffan Olsson said.

Sweden have three more matches to prepare ahead of the EHF EURO. At the beginning of January they are taking part in a tournament in Spain, at which they will be meeting Egypt again as well as Brazil and the Spanish world champions.

At the EHF EURO 2014 Sweden have been drawn to Group D in Brondby alongside Croatia, Belarus and Montenegro.