The German U20 national team has had to cope with another setback in preparation for the U20 World Championship tournament in Canada. During the corona tests during the individual quarantine in the hotel in Edmonton, eight team members of the delegation of the German Ice Hockey Federation received a positive result. The consequences for the entire DEB-The team will significantly limit their work until the first World Cup game against Finland on December 25th (16 p.m. local time/0 a.m. CET/live on MagentaSport). By order of the province of Alberta, the quarantine for the DEB extended until December 23rd if there are no further positive cases by then.
From December 18th, only people from... DEB-Delegation leaving the hotel room who have already had a Covid-19 infection. The players in question can now also train on the ice. The World Ice Hockey Federation IIHF gave approval for this. The German team's two World Cup test matches against Austria (December 21st) and the Czech Republic (December 23rd) planned at Rogers Place were canceled.
The coaching team around U20 national coach Tobias Abstreiter has adapted the training plans for the players according to the circumstances and will, for example, intensify the practice sessions in the rooms.
DEB-President Franz Reindl: “Our U20 delegation and the DEB were completely surprised by the current test results. It is simply the effects of the virus and the pandemic that are ultimately uncontrollable - even with the most careful adherence to the very extensive hygiene concept. This stressful quarantine situation in particular is difficult for everyone, especially the players, to cope with and requires incredible energy and discipline. I admire the work, attitude and extremely professional handling of the situation and thank them with great respect. The online encouragement to the team by Leon Draisaitl was particularly pleasing. The following sporting tasks will therefore be an even greater challenge for each individual."
Christian Künast, interim sports director DEB: “Of course, this news was quite a shock for us at first. But now is not the right time to discuss a setback in detail, but rather to look forward with a solution-oriented approach. It will definitely be difficult, as of course certain concerns remain. After the last PCR tests on Friday a week ago, which were all negative, we carried out rapid tests independently on Saturday the day before departure, which were also negative. We have nothing to blame ourselves for, we paid attention to everything and increased the protective measures even further than required. For example, we only ate together for the first time after the third PCR test in Füssen. Before, each room was left to itself, the furnishings were done room by room and so on. We have now completely changed the training, further increased the number of online meetings and will do everything possible to continue to prepare ourselves for the tournament in the best possible way.”
