01.10.2007, 10:39
Karabatic injured

The CL top scorer suffers serious shoulder injury in Montpelier. Karabatic may be out for a long time, possibly 5-6 weeks.

Karabatic injured

Nikola Karabatic, THW Kiel star and last season’s top scorer of the EHF Champions League, is injured.

In the 35th minute of the match in Montpellier that Kiel won 34:32, he fell on this shoulder after an incident with Montpelier’s Tej.

“He grabbed my legs and I fell on the floor,” Karabatic says on his homepage, “I’m really angry about this.”

After minutes of medical treatment on the floor, the Frenchman had to leave the court and he returned only later with ice on his shoulder. His match ended.

After the first check in the hospital on Monday, it was confirmed that Karabatic does not need to be operated. He will miss 3 to 8 weeks, more exact predictions could not be made.  

“He will not be able to play for five to six weeks, but it can even be months. It is terrible,” said THW manager, Uwe Schwenker on Sunday.

Things look gloomy for Kiel as also the Czech Filip Jicha – in the same position as Karabatic – will miss a couple of month due to an operation.

“It’s very hard for us with decisive weeks in the Bundesliga and Champions League coming up,” said Schwenker. “It’s a serious thing with Karabatic, because he may miss the European Championship in Norway.”

The captain, Staffan Lövgren, will have to replace Karabatic. As Schwenker says, the club is not willing to buy a substitute for Karabatic: “There’s no good player on the market.”

Besides Karabatic and Jicha, German national player, Christian Zeitz, is also missing due to a hip injury.

TEXT: Björn Pazen