Stefan Horngacher: "World Cup opener without Severin Freund"

When the 2019/20 World Cup season starts in Wisla (POL) next week, former overall World Cup winner Severin Freund will not be on the German team.

The Bavarian, who was struggling with serious knee injuries in the last couple of years, will have to wait a bit longer for his comeback in the World Cup. "When his body is fit, Severin is definitely a ski jumper who can make his way back. But currently, he has some minor problems again and has to take a break. We have to wait and see what it will be like in the next weeks. He will definitely miss the World Cup opener", head coach Stefan Horngacher explained in an interview on sportschau.de.

Even if it takes a little bit longer, Severin Freund will be able to compete again in the not too far future. Olympic champion Andreas Wellinger, on the other hand, will miss the entire winter season due to an ACL tear he sustained this summer. "Andi will definitely not participate in any events this season. He is making good progress, but it doesn't make any sense to rush things this season. The goal has to be to get him fit for next year and the World Championships in Oberstdorf", said Horngacher.

Due to the injuries of Severin Freund and Andreas Wellinger, the spotlight is now more on athletes like Karl Geiger and Markus Eisenbichler, also because of their achievements at the World Championships in Seefeld last winter.

They will have to deal with the higher expectations in the upcoming winter and their coach is confident, that they will be successful: "We are on the right track with Karl. He has done a very good job and improved his level in training significantly. In the past, this was not always the case. His was so-so and the competition outstanding. Now he is already showing good performances in training and we hope that he can do even better in the competitions now. Markus suffered one or two setbacks due to minor injuries, but he made good progress physically and technically. The main task for him is to control his emotions, then he can show what he is capable of."

After his very successful years in Poland, Stefan Horngacher doesn't set concrete goals in his first season as head coach of the German ski jumpers: "First and foremost we want to implement everything we worked on this summer in the competitions. Then we will see where we stand and can work on the finetuning. I don't link that to podium finishes."