Damien Brunner owes his panacea to Ambri

class=”sc-3778e872-0 cKDKQr”>

He tapped his glove against his leg and hit the ice with his stick in frustration. Damien Brunner immediately felt that he was being hit harder. When he got stuck in the ice during a duel in game 4 of the quarter-finals in Bern (see video below). “After the MRI it said: four weeks break,” says the 37-year-old. The season seemed over for him due to the muscle injury he sustained.

But then Ambri striker Dario Bürgler (35), once his teammate at Lugano and in the national team, called him up and said: “If you want to play again this season, come straight here.” The Ambri staff could possibly get this done. Brunner packed up and headed south. “I spent ten days with Ambris physiotherapists in Ticino. Her fitness trainer also helped me with this. And sports director Paolo Duca made it possible for me to go on the ice in Ambri,” says Brunner, adding with a smile: “It worked – it’s a panacea.”

Return after 15 days instead of four weeks

At first he lived in a holiday home that he inherited from his grandfather. “But when I went out on the ice in Ambri, the path got too long and I moved in with Bürgler.” He couldn’t put into words his gratitude for physiotherapist Emanuele Sarcinella and fitness trainer Lukas Oehen: “They also worked with me for four hours a day on weekends in their spare time – without any demands. It’s great and means a lot to me!”

Brunner actually made his comeback 15 days after the accident in Bern in the fourth semifinal in Zurich. He was right in the thick of it as Biel made history, reaching the playoff final for the first time with a 5-3 win. For Brunner it is the third time after 2016 and 2018 with Lugano that he has reached the final with a team. It was not until 2016 that he was able to intervene himself. In 2018, he missed the playoffs due to a broken leg. Both finals were lost.

But still a champion at 37?

Therefore, the Zurich native is the unfinished one so far – he still misses the championship title in his great career. “It gnaws at me and I’m always accused of it,” he says. “That’s why the big goal is of course to make it now. It’s great that I’m getting another chance at 37.” He used to put too much pressure on himself in Lugano: “But now in Biel I feel free and I don’t feel any pressure to achieve this. Of course I really want it, but for me my career is not determined by whether I it’s possible.”

Source : Blick