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Page 1 — “You and I, we’d break each other’s bones all the time”
Page 2 — “We were too uncritical with painkillers”
Peter Gräschus has looked after the German national team as a physiotherapist since 1993. He comes from Mössingen (Baden-Württemberg) and is a physiotherapist and osteopath. Team doctor Philip Lübke is an orthopedist and trauma surgeon in Kiel and has been with the national team since 2021. Previously he looked after the THW Kiel.
TIME ONLINE: Mr. Gräschus, you have been here for several decades. Can you now recognize the players on their loungers with their eyes closed?
Gräschus: I would say: Give me ten players to cover and I’ll blindly feel nine of them.
TIME ONLINE: Could you also distinguish between father and son? They now treat Juri Knorr the same way they treated his father Thomas, who was also a national player.
Gräschus: These are two different types of handball with correspondingly different muscles. Juri is a smooth player, he must have picked that up from his mother. His father was stronger, broader and made a living as a handball player.
TIME ONLINE: You have experienced different generations of athletes. Are players more conscious of their bodies today?
Gräschus: They grow up in a completely different environment. It used to be an exception to join the national team at the age of 21. This is only possible today because they are already working on their athleticism in clubs at the age of 16 or 17. And talk about it with your fellow players and read a lot of things yourself. When I started, there wasn’t even comprehensive physiotherapy in the clubs. Back then, stretching was still very new. When I think about how I treat people today, I would no longer sign some things from 35 years ago. We have also developed further. Every era had its programs. The players also used to go to the weight room. But today they work there in a much more targeted manner.
Peter Gräschus has been a physiotherapist for the German national handball team for more than 30 years. © Eibner press photo / Thomas Haesl/imago images
TIME ONLINE: Isn’t that why a lot more happens in this sometimes brutal sport?
Gräschus: Handball players learn how to fall from childhood. They have perfected this. They are so trained that they rarely make a stupid move. In some scenes we are surprised that nothing more serious happened. You and I would break our bones doing some of the rolling.
TIME ONLINE: Mr. Lübke, you have been the team doctor since 2021. You can’t complain about not enough work. Handball players constantly crash into each other, sometimes it seems as if they are even looking for a collision. Are handball players more irrational than other athletes?
Philip Lübke: I would not say that. Hardly anyone goes beyond a dangerous pain threshold anymore. Athletes know that their body is their capital that they must protect and conserve. And they have learned mechanisms that make this possible.
Gräschus: Every athlete finds his or her sport. For me, handball is the continuation of a childhood experience. There is also fighting and wrestling, holding and pushing. Anyone who plays handball should not shy away from physical contact.
TIME ONLINE: The skier Thomas Dreßen has just ended his career at the age of 30 due to injuries. The Frenchman Nikola Karabatic, on the other hand, still plays handball, although he will soon be 40 years old. How can that be?
Gräschus: We don’t know what the 30 years after competitive sport will look like. Fortunately! Of course the players suspect: it’s not entirely healthy. German national players tend to withdraw from the national team sooner than players from other nations. Because then they can play longer in the Bundesliga, the toughest and most intense league of all.
Lübke: And Nikola no longer has this hard everyday life. He plays very differently than before, has reduced his movements, withdraws more often, has a good eye and a more organizational role. This saves energy and protects his body. The 40-year-old Swiss Andy Schmid is also one of the players who prefer the physical game.
TIME ONLINE: Gísli Thorgeir Kristjánsson dislocated his shoulder in the last Champions League semi-final. An injury that requires surgery. However, together with his doctor and trainer, he decided to play in the final the following day. He led SC Magdeburg to the title. Afterwards he said: “I have so much painkiller in my shoulder now. Actually our doctor is the player of the game.” How do you find that?
Lübke: I would have made the same decision. Success proves him right.
Gräschus: He already knew about this injury and it couldn’t have gotten any worse. He has decided that this is how it should be. The only thing that shouldn’t be left to the player is in the case of head injuries.
The doctor of the German national handball team: Philip Lübcke © Marco Wolf/imago images
TIME ONLINE: Is there a difference between healthy and ready to play?
Gräschus: Competitive sports are not health sports. The shoulder of someone who has played handball for 15 years looks different than hers or mine. We try to do the best for the athlete under the stresses that sport brings with it. I’m more likely to ask: Is it dangerous to his health if he plays more?
Lübke: The question is not always whether the athlete is healthy, but whether he is – medically justifiable – resilient. Can I let him play the game? If a right-handed person has problems with his left elbow, he is not healthy. But he can play.
TIME ONLINE: Don’t you live in a constant state of conflict? As doctors and therapists you want to help, as part of the national team you should contribute to victory.
Lübke: The athletes have learned how much you have to work to have a fit body. If I only do something for my body when it hurts, then that’s not optimal. This is especially true for top athletes, but also for everyone else. One of the main tasks of a competitive athlete is to maintain their performance. And we are the ones who accompany them along the way. If we can do that, handball is still not a health sport. But it’s not an unhealthy sport either.
Peter Gräschus has looked after the German national team as a physiotherapist since 1993. He comes from Mössingen (Baden-Württemberg) and is a physiotherapist and osteopath. Team doctor Philip Lübke is an orthopedist and trauma surgeon in Kiel and has been with the national team since 2021. Previously he looked after the THW Kiel.
TIME ONLINE: Mr. Gräschus, you have been here for several decades. Can you now recognize the players on their loungers with their eyes closed?
Gräschus: I would say: Give me ten players to cover and I’ll blindly feel nine of them.
