“We want to try different ways to manage the upcoming season as best and safely as possible,” Sandro Frei, a spokesman for the Zurich club ZSC Lions, explained last week for iDNES.cz.
Zurich club doctor Gery Büsser was the author of the idea of how to protect hockey players from the spread of coronavirus during the match. According to Büsser, close contact between teammates on the inverter is more dangerous than collisions with an opponent on the ice.
That’s why the players of Rapperswil and Zurich, two teams in the highest Swiss league, had to put on veils over their mouths and noses on the substitute during Thursday’s mutual preparation match. They could then pull them to their chins on the ice. The experiment lasted one third of the match.
Result? The word loser probably won’t be too exaggerated. “The veils did not work. They were quickly wet and made it difficult to breathe, “the Swiss SRF server quoted Dr. Büsser as saying. “It simply came to our notice then. However, now we have to come up with another way to protect the player. “
One of the players also confirmed a bad impression for iDNES.cz. Striker Lukáš Lhoták, who was the only Czech hockey player in the match (Roman Červenka and František Řehák still work with him in Rapperswil), was definitely not satisfied with the bizarre measure.
Veil hockey. The Swiss are looking for a way, and they are forcing the elite to experiment |
“How would I describe it … It felt like crap. Here in Switzerland, they sometimes exaggerate a bit, “Lhoták shook his head. The 27-year-old striker, who has been working in Switzerland since the youth categories, searched in vain for the logic of wearing veils during a match.
“The virus can be caught on ice, not only on the inverter. What’s more, you can’t be in it, when you jump from ice to the inverter, you breathe even more, “Lhoták describes the woes of an unusual experiment.
“At the same time, veils would be an elegant solution to prevent the spread of the disease among teammates,” regrets Büsser. Nevertheless, the Zurich doctor is determined to continue trying to find another solution. According to him, there are two more possibilities: either wider substitutes or plexiglass between each seated hockey player.
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