No EHF EURO 2014 for Andersson
Sweden must play EHF EURO 2014 without their greatest star and KIF Kolding København must play the rest of the VELUX EHF Champions League Group Phase without Kim Andersson.
Several times, Sweden´s two national coaches Staffan Olsson and Ola Lindgren have expressed their hope to be able to make use of Sweden´s greatest handball star for January’s major championship in Denmark.
Now it is a fact, however, that this hope is definitively extinguished. The 31-year-old right back, who plays for Danish side KIF Kolding København, finally had to have surgery to deal with the shoulder injury which has been bothering him since April.
Andersson has tried to make a comeback for his club a couple of times, but without being able to shoot from distance.
Several special training programs have been tried, but on Tuesday this week, Andersson had to go under the knife and can now look ahead to a further five months on the sideline.
Detecting the problem
“It is a relief to us all that action has now been taken on this problem,” KIF Kolding København´s press officer Thomas Christensen said after the operation.
“Obviously it is tough for me to miss the EURO, which has been my aim all the time. The doctor detected something which was not visible on the X-rays and that explains why I have had this problem for so long,” Kim Andersson told the website of the Swedish Handball Federation.
“The idea was that they should clean out my shoulder, so that I could play at the EURO, but instead it turned into a more extensive operation. It is great to have found the reason for the drama, though. The most important thing for me now is to work my way back,” he added.
The break means that Kim Andersson will not only be missing the EHF EURO 2014 with Sweden, but also that KIF Kolding København must do without him for the rest of the Group Phase in the VELUX EHF Champions League, plus possible Last 16 matches and quarter-finals.
Andersson is only likely to be back for the last matches of the Danish championship play-offs and for the VELUX EHF FINAL4, should KIF Kolding København make it that far.
TEXT: Peter Bruun / cor
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