"Despite all the precautions to protect against the virus, today the group is overtaken by Covid-19" lamented Monday Guillaume Gille, coach of the France team, when mentioning in a press release the contamination of Karl Konan.

A key element of the success of the Blues in the first round, the 26-year-old defender will miss at least two of the four main round matches, isolated for at least five days after a positive test revealed on Monday.

Even if no other positive case is to be deplored, according to a new press release published on Wednesday, enough to put a little doubt in the tricolor group, which had been particularly affected at the start of preparation in December (ten players positive for coronavirus before to go to Hungary, including nine retained in the group for the Euro).

“Since the bad news received, we have been more careful, we have reinforced the distance, the protocols in our life together so that contact times are as short as possible, but we are also here to work. We are suffering from the situation but without make a deal out of it", Guillaume Gille returned to the press on Wednesday.

Euro 2022 handball: main round Vincent LEFAI AFP

The Olympic champions, who must finish in one of the first two places in their group to qualify for the semi-finals, join the already well-stocked bench of nations affected during the competition.

Like the Netherlands, which they face on Thursday in Budapest, and which have three new cases in their ranks since Monday (Robin Schoenaker, Jeffrey Boomhouwer and Florent Bourget).

Croatia were not spoiled either.

Opponent of the French on the first day, she announced four cases after the meeting, which did not prevent her from snatching her qualification thanks to a success over Ukraine on Monday.

"We have no injuries and I hope no more covid cases," said Mate Sunjic after the match.

Unfortunately, the goalkeeper of US Ivry, precious since the start of the tournament, has in turn tested positive since, the Croatian Federation announced on Wednesday.

"We knew what to expect"

Germany, she is no longer doing.

With three new players infected on Wednesday morning and a member of staff, the Mannschaft currently has 13 players available before its match against Spain on Thursday.

This carnage prompted the boss of the Handball Bundesliga (HBL) Frank Bohmann to put forward the idea of ​​a possible withdrawal of the Mannschaft from Euro-2022, the first international handball event to suffer from the ravages of the Omicron wave.

"All options must be put on the table and discussed openly with all stakeholders," he told AFP's sports subsidiary SID on Tuesday.

The German handball team after their victory over Austria at the Euro on January 16, 2022 in Bratislava VLADIMIR SIMICEK AFP / Archives

"The tournament is turning into a farce," 2007 world champion Christian Schwarzer told SPOX media.

"It would be frustrating and ultimately bad for our sport if, in the end, the European champions were the team that had the fewest covid cases," added the former German international.

"These conclusions, we can only draw them later" preferred to temporize Guillaume Gille.

The German team has not expressed the intention to give up.

"We knew what to expect when we came," said the captain of the France team, Valentin Porte, who tested positive just before the Euro but recovered for the start of the tournament.

"We know that it can happen to us tomorrow but it doesn't matter. If we have to play seven without a substitute, we will do it.", concluded the Olympic champion, who suspected that after a calm first round for the French, "it was going to end up (their) falling on it".

The twelve nations still in contention must continue to live with this common adversary.

© 2022 AFP