Marcel Hirscher created a surprise by announcing in April his return to the alpine ski circuit, at the age of 35 and after five years of absence from the slopes. But the comeback was cut short: after a month of competition and three races, the eight-time winner of the Ski World Cup tore the cruciate ligament in his left knee during training on Monday, December 2.
“One crucial ligament less, that’s the end of the project”explained Marcel Hirscher, in the press release published Tuesday by his ski brand. He was operated on for an hour and a half that same evening and “will stay in the hospital for two or three days for observation”.
“It’s of course a difficult breakup after eight months of a sincere project. It’s a shame because the whole team, including me, had other plans for this winter. », Declared the Austrian-Dutch skier, who published on Instagram the video of his training where we see him making a small error in a turn before stopping his effort and holding his left knee.
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Between the announcement of his return in April and his injury on Monday, Marcel Hirscher was able to snag three World Cup bibs, without being convincing about his level. As a giant at the end of October, for the first race of the winter in Sölden (Austria), he managed to qualify in the second round before winning 23e place.
He was then disappointed with his performances in slalom, his favorite discipline in his heyday: far from the best in Levi (Finland), on November 17, at the end of “one of the worst races of his life”he went off the track in the first round in Gurgl (Austria) on November 24.
“It will certainly be difficult to watch the races (…) but as is unfortunately the case with skiing, it’s part of the game”he added. “Perhaps I have finally finished my journey”he concluded, hinting at the end of his career, this time definitive.
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