The German basketball coach, the Spaniard Alex Mumbrúhe told the German magazine Stern the difficulties experienced during the Eurobasket played in August, a tournament in which he fell ill with pancreatitis.
From Spain, where he is still recovering from the consequences, the former player also explained what his treatment was like in the Finnish city of Tampere, where he was hospitalized for five days: “They filled me with painkillers. I knew where I was, but I didn’t feel anything. In those days I was a zombie”.
In his interview, Mumbrú acknowledged that he prohibited the players of the German basketball team from visiting him. “What use would it have been if they came to see me in the hospital? They would have seen a coach suffering and they would have lost concentration on the tournament. I wanted to avoid that”he explained.
“I discharged myself from the hospital at my own risk. I had to sign a form for this. The doctors in Tampere had advised me against returning to training”said the 46-year-old technician.
Mumbrú stated that, once out of the hospital, he wanted to be present again in the final phase of the tournament, held in Riga. “They had advised me to take care of myself, of course. But doing nothing would have made me even sicker”he commented.
Although he delegated the training and direction of the team to his assistant, Alan Ibrahimagic, Múmbrú returned to the national team to face the decisive matches of the Eurobasket, which Germany ended up winning, just as they did in the last World Cup.
However, the coach was unable to participate in the subsequent celebrations with the entire group. Instead, he flew straight to Spain the morning after the final and returned to hospital. There, he explained, they received him with a few words of warning.
“The doctor who treated me told me: ‘I saw the final on television, congratulations on the victory in the Eurobasket. But you have played with your health, boy. You should not have been in the pavilion. Now you have some difficult days ahead of you'”declared to Stern.
After an operation in which his gallstones and gallbladder were removed, Mumbrú commented that he now feels better. Even though He still weighs about 15 kilos less than normalat the end of November and beginning of December he was in fact able to coach Germany again in the World Cup qualifying phase.
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