«Last race of the season. What remains is the love of skiing,” writes Marcel Hirscher in a video that shows him on the racing slope. With these words, the returnee announced that he would have to end his comeback season after just three races.
In the Insta post you can see him getting hit on the knee while making giant slalom turns and screaming loudly. It is the fateful scene that makes further races impossible for the five-time overall World Cup winner. The first rumors of a possible injury began circulating on Monday.
Then on Tuesday the confirmation: cruciate ligament tear in the knee with a slight injury to the external capsule system, wrote Hirscher’s ski brand Van Deer. He was operated on in Graz on Monday. “The cruciate ligament is gone, the project is over,” the Austrian is quoted as saying in the ski manufacturer’s statement.
“Of course this is a bitter blow after eight months of a project close to our hearts and a huge shame because all of us, the whole team, including me, had other plans this winter,” says Hirscher. It will definitely be hard to watch the races, added Hirscher. He also gave information about his future shortly after the shock diagnosis.
«Injuries are part of the game. Maybe now I’m finally finished with my trip,” says Hirscher. For the first time he experienced firsthand the painful topic of cruciate ligament rupture. “There are still eight months that were intense and I had a lot of fun,” but the comebacker can see the positive.
After Hirscher resigned after the 2019/20 season, he made his comeback this winter. But when he returned, he didn’t compete for Austria, but for the Netherlands, his mother’s home country.
The 35-year-old received a wildcard from the FIS and was able to start the races with a lower starting number. This was met with incomprehension by the competition. But the two-time Olympic champion was unable to convert his competitive advantage into results. At the giant slalom in Sölden he finished 23rd.
In the slalom, his flagship discipline, he had no luck. In Levi he didn’t make it into the second run. In his last race for the time being in Gurgl, Austria, he was eliminated in the first round.
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