Thomas Müller has been infected with the corona virus. What was broadcast as breaking news a year ago, during the Club World Cup in Qatar, is almost lost this time, even in the news bubble of the always very excited sports business. When he was first infected in 2021, the FC Bayern attacker was packed in a full body suit and flown back to Munich in a specially chartered ambulance. After that he was absent for weeks. And now, 2022: no plague equipment, no fuss. “Müller tested positive again,” reported the sports information service soberly, “meanwhile national goalkeeper Manuel Neuer completed his first laps on the training ground on Säbener Straße on Monday, 15 days after his knee operation.”
The new normality in dealing with Corona in sport can be seen not least in the accumulation of the word “meanwhile”. One has to take a break while the other returns. Is Corona now just something like the adductor strain or the muscle fiber tear?
A report from the German Press Agency: “The home game of the Bundesliga handball team of HSV Hamburg against HBW Balingen-Weilstetten, which is scheduled for Thursday, is cancelled. As the HSVH announced on Monday, several Balingen players have contracted Corona.” And the dpa continues: “Meanwhile, the Hamburg backcourt player Philipp Bauer, who had to be driven off the field on a stretcher with a concussion in the match on Sunday at HSG Wetzlar (25:26), has been released from the hospital.”
You can get infected with Corona several times – the sports business still has to get used to that
The resolution to live with the virus now meets with practiced absence management in sport: someone is always sick or injured, someone is always absent. And now something is canceled – a game, a tournament.
What you still have to get used to: the realization that you can get infected with Corona several times. In particular, the assumption that those who have recovered from omicrons are protected from reinfection for a longer period of time has been dismissed – one can read about this, for example, in a current preprint study from the USA. Not pretty, but that’s how it is. Which is why the cheerful infection, recovery and re-infection will continue to push sports operations to their limits – selectively.
Like the capital club Hertha BSC recently: Maximilian Mittelstädt, Jurgen Ekkelenkamp, Kevin-Prince Boateng, Lukas Klünter, Dongjun Lee, Marvin Plattenhardt, Suat Serdar and Niklas Stark were out in the Bundesliga on Sunday, all Corona positive. “I’ll be the last one to complain,” said brave Berlin coach Tayfun Korkut. Meanwhile, Hertha lost 6-1 to RB Leipzig.