Fear and sores ... The Euro in the Olympic year, a heresy?

To take up a remark made by a colleague to Didier Dinart on Monday morning at the Maison du handball, the coach "chose not to choose" by taking 18 men in his suitcases. The excess baggage of two players - including probably a goalkeeper - he will shed on the eve of the first match of the French team at Euro 2020, against Portugal. "These are not easy choices," regrets the boss of the Blues, a bit annoyed at having to dismiss two disciples without having had the time to prepare worthy of the major competition about to be tackled.

“From 26 to 30 we had five training sessions. We arrived in Metz on January 2nd and had to work on the 3rd. The EHF calendar means that we have to finish competitions at the end of January. So we have shorter and shorter preparations. "Dinart was still able to gauge his guys against Serbia (40-26 win) and Denmark (30-31 defeat) but is not satisfied with it:" five training sessions to set up the offensive and defensive systems, you have seen against Denmark, it's not easy ”. Joys of a prep in advance.

"A high risk of injury which can take away our chances of going to the Olympics"

Here is the sea serpent on the international handball calendar again. A soap opera set aside last year after the ouster of the French DTN Philippe Bana from the competition organization committee (COC) of the International Federation (IHF). His wrong? To have moaned against the untenable rhythms imposed on the players, medical expertise in support. "80 games a year is delusional," he was indignant in our columns, before being rehabilitated three months later in the world body, with some progress. The IHF thus validated two measures from the 2021 World Cup:

• The enlargement of the workforce to 18 players - with five possible arrivals during the competition.
• A mandatory day of rest between each match.

A little more and these unconscious respected the labor law. But there is better than the IHF: its European counterpart (EHF) which insists on organizing one Euro out of two in the Olympic year. What Nikola Karabatic, long injured in the foot last year and the poster of the movement "Don't Play The Players" favorable to a reform of the calendars, is enormously hard to rejoice.

"It is inevitable. I do not see the authorities ready to modify the international calendars for the Olympic years. So I'm pretty pessimistic about it. […] They impose these two competitions on us which are very difficult and between the two a club season which is also very important. We have no choice, we try to give our all in the field but we know that at any time this overwork can be detrimental to us individually. We have a high risk of injury which can take away our chances of going to the Olympics if we ever qualify. But it's the game, it's like that. We know it, we try not to think about it, to give ourselves thoroughly. We don't have much more to do. Apart from trying to put all our chances on our side so as not to get hurt, that is to say, to prepare well, to have a good lifestyle… We have our asses between two chairs. "

Difficulty managing

On the one hand the fear of injury, on the other the professional conscience and the love of competition. In parallel with the militant speech, the player of Paris Saint-Germain urges his brother Luka to do everything to recover from his dislocation of the middle finger and grab the European wagon along the way ("it's always worth it", he says) rather than taking your time to ensure a peaceful end to the season. This is the whole paradox of the player.

Don t play the players. 🤾🏼‍♂️🤾‍♀️ # DontPlayThePlayers # ProtectThePlayers # Handball @ AJPHandball @EHF @ihf_info @EHPU_handball pic.twitter.com/tmyMLr6gp8

“It's hard [to manage]. It's up to the coaches to make choices and make decisions, but it's very hard, ”said Karabatic. “Even if the Olympics are above the Euro, we are going to the Euro to bring back a medal and try to go to the semi-finals [qualifying for the World Cup]. We are not going to ease off because there is potentially the Olympics behind. We will play thoroughly without calculating. Because it is the game and a place for the Olympic Games will be offered to the best European nation. A detail of the utmost importance because France is not yet qualified for Tokyo and if it does not win the Euro, it will go to the qualifying tournament in April. Matches, matches, always more matches. Come on, a little light in this dark world. Didier Dinart: "to date, the team is in good health". We just have to pray for it to hold.

Sport

"80 games a year, it's delusional", the DTN of hand Philippe Bana joins the crusade of players to lighten the calendar

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