Balic and Vukovic doubtful for EHF EURO 2012

Croatia’s hopes of winning their first European Championship title could suffer a severe blow after their coach Slavko Goluza revealed inspirational playmaker Ivano Balic was in danger of missing this month’s EHF EURO 2012 in Serbia through injury.

Also doubtful for the 16-team tournament in four Serbian cities is Croatia’s prolific backcourt player Drago Vukovic, as he too faces a race against time to recover. Both players are essential for Croatia’s setup and Goluza said he was working on possible formations without the two, should they miss EHF EURO 2012.

"Their injuries are far from innocuous, but we are doing all we can to get them back to full fitness in time for the tournament," Goluza was quoted as saying by Croatian media. "Their recovery is slow although they have shown a tremendous amount of will-power and the desire to speed up their recovery," he added.

Vukovic, who won the gold medal with Croatia in the 2004 Olympics and silver in EHF EURO 2008, believes he will be fit for the event in Serbia, where Croatia start their Preliminary Round Group D campaign with a tricky opener against Iceland in Vrsac on Monday.

"I hope I will be OK in time for the match with Iceland because they are a difficult team to beat and we always struggled against them," he said.

"I know many of their players because they play in the Bundesliga, their 6-0 defence is solid and their fast breaks can be lethal for the opposition," said Vukovic, who plays his club handball for German side TuS N-Lübecke.

Iceland will also be weakened as veteran playmaker Olafur Stefansson is certain to be sidelined for EHF EURO 2012 with a knee injury, but Vukovic believes his absence will only galvanise his team-mates to perform at the top of their limits.

"He is a legend and has won many battles for Iceland, but he has also had dips in form and I think Alexander Petersson will prove to be an apt and able replacement for him," Vukovic stressed, adding that Croatia’s other two rivals will also be a mountain to climb for the EHF EURO 2010 runners-up.

"We were barely able to scrape a win over Norway in our opening game two years ago in Austria, while the young Slovenian team will most certainly play their hearts out to make an impact," he said.

Further information

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