Bad news for Julie Allemand and the Belgian Cats. The playmaker suffered a serious ankle injury in a match with ASVEL Lyon. She has to go under the knife and will be out for 3 to 4 months. She can forget about her WNBA excursion. “Julie sounds combative and not negative. She does not panic,” says Sven Van Camp of the national team.
The rest of the season is over for Julie Allemand, a statement from the Belgian association released this morning.
In the French league match against Saint-Amand, the ligaments of the 27-year-old strongman’s ankle were seriously injured.
“In consultation with the medical staff of Lyon and that of the Belgian Cats, she will undergo surgery next week,” it said. “She faces a rehabilitation of 3 to 4 months. She can count on the guidance of both parties.”
Things are not going well for Allemand: at the beginning of February she was also struggling with her knee and missed the opening match of the Olympic qualifying tournament in Antwerp.
She was there again in the second match against Senegal and contributed more than her share to the victory and qualification for the Games.
We have complete confidence in the medical framework and in the hard work ethic that characterizes Allemand.
Sven Van Camp, High Performance Manager Belgian Cats
She is now in danger of missing that. The Belgian Cats will open their Olympic tournament against Germany on July 29, followed by Belgium-USA on August 1 and Japan-Belgium on August 4.
The Cats are aiming for a medal at the Games, as European champions they want to do better than at the previous Games, when they were narrowly defeated by Japan in the quarter-finals.
Allemand wanted to prepare himself for those important Olympic Games with a new WNBA adventure. But the LA Sparks need to cut them.
It will be a race against time. “Her participation in Paris will depend entirely on rehabilitation,” reckons Sven Van Camp, High Performance Manager of the Cats.
“But we are not going to speculate, because that is very dangerous in top sport. We have every confidence in both medical frameworks and also in the hard work ethic that characterizes her.”
“We are keeping our fingers crossed with her and the entire Belgian Cats family for the best scenario, but the absolute priority is a complete rehabilitation.”
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“Don’t panic”
The news was a bit of a shock for the Cats’ entourage. “Everyone knows that Julie is important to our team.”
Van Camp does not want to dramatize it right away. “It is a concern for us at the moment, not yet a blow. Because there is still time and we can have good hopes. If this news came a month before the Games, we would rather call it a blow.”
“We shouldn’t say that yet. We can be hopeful. We are not going to panic. Unfortunately, Julie already has some experience with injuries. She will certainly not panic either.”
Van Camp has heard Allemand: “She communicates very well with us to coordinate all these matters. She sounds combative, certainly not negative.”
“But she also does not want to get ahead of things, neither in a negative nor in a positive sense. She is a professional at that.”
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2024-03-28 11:23:48
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