Brazil’s men’s national team cannot catch a break. After losing both of its starting outside hitters, Ricardo Lucarelli and Mauricio Borges, to injuries that left them out of the WCH, it was Lipe‘s turn to go down as well. Lipe has suffered all summer with a right elbow tendinitis and felt his condition worsen during Brazil’s first friendly match against the Netherlands. For now, he is out of comissioná and will not play for the rest of Brazil’s meetings with the Dutch.
Here is how Matheus Cardoso, the team’s physiotherapist, broke the news (Globo.com):
“At first, his injury does not worry me. He had exams taken to have a comparison with the previous examinations he had done. It’s more of a precaution. Usually, for older athletes, there’s always the risk of injury.”
Setter Bruninho was also optimistic about Lipe‘s prognosis:
“He’s a warrior. In the last game he played with some pain. We expect him to be able to recover. He is doing everything to be in the WCH. I really hope he can play, not only by his quality inside court, but as a leader outside of it too. We can’t risk having himself injured on friendlies and expect him to be in the WCH.”
If Lipe‘s condition doesn’t improve and he has to miss out on the WCH, then Brazil will be without 3 of its 4 OHs that participated in Brazil’s Olympic gold medal run in 2006, the only one remaining being Douglas Souza, only 23 years old, and who barely saw any court time during the competition.
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