There have been several changes in the nomination of the Slovak hockey team for the domestic tournament called Christmas Kaufland Cup 2025. The official website of the union informed about it.
Coach Vladimír Országh lost as many as five hockey players due to injuries or illnesses. Due to the difficult situation, up to seven replaced them at the last minute.
Goalkeeper Stanislav Škorvánek, defender Peter Čerešňák and forwards Tomáš Tatar, Marek Hrivík and Miloš Kelemen dropped out of the original nomination list.
Huge portion
“All of them due to poor health. In every competition, due to the Olympic season, the match schedule is inflated, the boys play many matches, especially in the Czech extra league. Some, in addition to the domestic competition, also in the Champions League.
VIDEO: Országh on changes in the nomination
It is a huge portion, which also affected their health. Tomáš Tatar has been on hiatus since the first half of November.
He was supposed to return to the match action, unfortunately, the convalescence was prolonged. We had to react to the situation,” coach Vladimír Országh was interviewed about the changes.
Together with the leadership of the national team, they had an extremely difficult weekend.
In addition to already notified players who dropped out of the nomination, some original substitutes were also injured during the weekend.
Jurčák can make his national team debut
That is also why coach Országh had to deal with other alternatives from the early hours of the morning on Monday.
The team will be joined by goalkeepers Dávid Hrenák and Patrik Jurčák, who can make their national team debut if they start the match.
The coaching staff called Dávid Romanaňák to the vacant position in the defense.
Sebastián Čederle and Filip Krivošík replaced the attacking absentees, Marek Hecl will also be with the national team until Wednesday, December 10, and Patrik Hrehorčák will replace him in the nomination after the match with Norway.
“It required a lot of communication with both the players and the clubs.
In the end, we decided to take an extra two goalkeepers, one defender and four forwards, while Hecl will complete the first half at once and Hrehorčák the second,” added Országh.
