KRAKOW (VG) He was sidelined for several weeks after contracting corona disease last season. Now Magnus Abelvik Rød is ready for a WC comeback. Norway has protested in two rounds against the corona restrictions in the championship.
The 25-year-old from Oslo is ready for Norway’s World Cup opener against North Macedonia on Friday after missing both last year’s European Championship and the World Cup in 2021 due to injuries. After the knee operation last season, covid created new problems for Abelvik Rød in Flensburg, Germany this spring.
– I played a match after the illness and got incredibly tired. I didn’t understand why. But an examination revealed changes in the heart rhythm. It was checked more carefully. I had to be careful. It took time. I was out for a month, says Abelvik Rød and calls it all “long covid”.
He is glad he took the break last year.
– It’s not something I’m aware of now at all. It is over. But it was better to be careful than to push too hard at the start, he says.
This year’s WC is also characterized by corona. Europe has relaxed the restrictions, but the international handball federation IHF is maintaining some measures.
– It is as it is. Of course we wish everything was free. But we have a medical team that looks after this, says Abelvik Rød.
Like the rest of the WC squad, he had to go through a PCR test on Monday. All Norwegians were negative. They must take new quick tests both before the main round and the quarter-finals of the World Cup. The Norwegian players always wear a mask in their pocket, have their own dining room in the hotel and keep track of the journalists in Poland.
– I disagree that we should be tested at all, says Norwegian national team doctor Thomas Torgalsen to VG.
He states that the Norwegian Handball Association has protested twice. Before Christmas, Torgalsen together with the national team doctors of Germany, France, Denmark, Sweden and Iceland wrote a letter to the IHF.
Last Tuesday, according to Torgalsen, Norway, together with several WC nations, wrote a new letter of protest to the IHF at an administrative level. He believes that it should have been up to the health teams to handle all infection – including possible corona infection.
– We should have gone back to isolating players from the squad and preventing further infection. Sick athletes should not compete, he says.
The IHF originally decided that players with corona had to be out for at least five days and have a negative test to re-enter the championship.
– They have gone back on that rule, says Thomas Torgalsen.
The last three handball championships – with strict corona rules – have given Norway a downturn. After WC silver in 2019 and EC bronze the following year, Norway has not made it to the semi-finals.
Last year’s EC was strongly influenced by the then new Omikron variant. Many nations had major problems with positive tests during the championship. Norway lost Torbjørn Bergerud and Magnus Gullerud before the final match for 5th place.
– I have told the players that they should not think about corona at all now, says the doctor.
The gaming protests have been clear. Iceland’s veteran goalkeeper Björgvin Páll Gústavsson is wearing Twitter shared the letter he and other players have sent to the IHF. Sander Sagosen says that all corona questions should be asked of the national team doctor, but adds sourly:
– I think they are all very much aware that this is not lucky.
The IHF has not responded to VG’s request in this case. But the international association pointed last week to the omicron variant XBB. 1.5 in an email to Ritzau.
– It shows that the pandemic must still be taken seriously, IHF press officer Kristin Burr told the Danish news agency.
Norway – North Macedonia Friday at 20.30, TV 3 and Viaplay
