He had been in solitary confinement at the handball house in Créteil since the end of last week. Tested positive for Covid-19, Valentin Porte, the captain of the France team, let the Blues fly to Hungary on Monday, where the European Championship takes place from this Thursday, January 13. In his absence, Nikola Karabatic took the captain’s armband during a friendly match Sunday against Germany (34-35).
But this Tuesday at the beginning of the afternoon, good news finally arrived for the France group not spared since Christmas by the vagaries. The Olympic champion has become negative for Covid-19 again: “The encouraging news fell in the early afternoon,” said the federation in a press release. Tested at dawn on Tuesday, Valentin Porte indeed received his RT-PCR with the mention “negative”. The captain of the Blues will take the direction of Hungary tonight: he will have to undergo a new RT-PCR test on Wednesday morning to validate his entry into the group. “Valentin Porte immediately reacted to this good news:” I almost fell out of bed. My goal was to be able to come back negative before the start of the competition. I’m going to finish packing and head for Hungary. In Créteil, Porte has never stopped physical work with two daily sessions. « I focused on this work and surprisingly I remained calm in the expectation. »
His arrival in Szeged where all the other Blues are already is scheduled late at night from Tuesday to Wednesday. Valentin Porte will be placed in a single room and subjected, when he wakes up on Wednesday, to a new RT-PCR test. He will have to wait a few hours to obtain a second negative sesame in order to return to the group, on the eve of the shock against Croatia (Thursday at 8:30 p.m. live on BeInsport and TFX). Will it be operational for this first match? It will depend on his state of form after a week of isolation. If so, Nikola Karabatic will no longer be captain.
