Why playoff injuries are kept a secret

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Is it still running smoothly? In the play-offs, at the latest from the semi-finals, the first rumors about possible injuries are circulating. As a rule, there is no information, the clubs keep the medical bulletins under lock and key for practical reasons: someone could come up with stupid ideas and hit them where there is already a pinch.

Clubs and players don’t start chatting until the season is over – and that too for practical reasons: injuries are occasionally communicated in the post-traumatic processing of an early departure to preemptively take the wind out of system critics. However, the sudden transparency is often also a protective reflex: if a player does not achieve his optimal return in the most important phase of the season, an injury report submitted later can provide a simple explanation.

Those who persevere despite serious injuries and are spared suspicion at the same time receive the highest award for team athletes: hero status for extraordinary courage.

Playoffs with four broken ribs

The EVZ captain and gauge Jan Kovar played through the play-offs in the spring of 2022 with four broken ribs on his way to the second title in a row. An injury that forces even professionals with the highest pain tolerance to raise the white flag. But not Kovar. “I had long discussions with the coach whether or not I should play. But in the end it was all or nothing.”

But without painkillers he wouldn’t have stood a chance. “But the checks remained painful,” says Kovar, “so I just tried as best I could to avoid such problems.” Breathing was easier than expected, “I thought it would be worse”.

But it can take anyone. Even the Davos long-distance runner Andres Ambühl. In 2018, “Büeli National” missed the rest of the playoffs and the World Cup in Copenhagen due to a cut. In the quarterfinals, a teammate’s slip broke tendons and ligaments above his right ankle, surgery, end of the season. Although trainer Del Curto had hoped for a miracle: “Ambühl is Ambühl, also a farmer’s son, they are made of other stuff.” Ambuhl is determined – but apparently still a flesh and blood person.

1990: emergency medical care for self-care

Aggressive Canadian Paul Gagné, responsible for rustic and countable football in Olten and Biel in the 1990s, made a brief playoff appearance in Zurich’s Hallenstadion in 1996. The then ZSC teammate Edgar Salis recalls: “Gagné had a bad bursa on his elbow, the arm looked like a boiled sausage. During the breaks he took off his armpit and elbow pads, bent over a garbage can and squeezed out purulent liquid the swollen joint, turned the equipment back on and continued Fortunately there are no pictures of that Please do not try this at home because: risk of infection.

Hit it where it hurts

This episode gives an example of possible abuse: In 2011, Kloten’s Fin Tommi Santala had to tackle the final series against HC Davos with a broken index finger. Apparently not everyone in Kloten kept the industry standard vow of silence at the time – the transgression went public. When the puck was thrown in for the first time in the fifth game in Davos, Santala was hit with a stick by his opponent Reto von Arx – right on the sore spot. Santala’s glove flew under the roof of the hall. Evil is he who thinks badly: Did Von Arx aim well? Or was that a coincidence? In any case, the HCD leader soon knew how it felt: a year later, during the first quarterfinal against the eventual champion ZSC Lions, Von Arx was hit by a puck on the hand (friendly fire, the sender was his teammate Beat Forster ) and breaks a finger. Von Arx has surgery the next day and is back in the third game after a short break, but has to continue for the last bouquet with the victory of the Zurich team.

Torn ligament while playing the ball

But sometimes the players get it during the warm-up before making first contact with the ice: during the 1994 quarter-finals against SC Bern, EVZ Switzerland-Canadians Misko Antisin, Tony Koller and Colin Muller throw a soccer ball onto the field next to the old Herti-Halle. When Antisin tries to catch the ball, he loses sight of the terrain, steps on a curb off the field and twists his ankle: torn ligaments in his right ankle. Antisin stumbles into the cloakroom, puts on his gear, and says nothing at first. Only when the foot is swollen is the doctor called. In the game after that, “Mish” scored two goals. He can only walk with the aid of crutches for the rest of the playoffs – but he can play thanks to pain-relieving injections and the support of ice skates.

Source : Blick