Almost half of the Polish national team's starting lineup may not play in the Olympic Games final in Paris, Polish media trumpet.

On Saturday, the Polish national volleyball team will play its most important match. In the long-awaited Olympic final, the white-and-reds will face the French national team. However, coach Nikola Grbić and the rest of the staff have to deal with a very serious problem - injuries!

It may happen that almost half of the squad that started the most important matches in the group stage and quarterfinals will not be able to play in the final.
The most serious injury is that of Paweł Zatorski. And even more worrying is that, in practice, the Poles do not have a full-fledged replacement for him. The absurd regulations of the IOC, which have been in force since the time when there was no libero position in volleyball teams, are to blame for everything, complain Polish journalists. At a later stage, the composition of the teams in all tournaments was increased from 12 to 14 players. With the exception of the Olympics, where they are 12 plus one reserve, in case of injury.

It is not known whether Zatorski will manage to overcome his shoulder injury by the final. He himself admitted in one of the post-match interviews that he could not feel two of his fingers. This would be a huge loss for the Polish team, because no other player in Paris can provide such class in this position as the main libero, Polish journalists are concerned. If Zatorski cannot play, it is assumed that Aleksander Śliwka will be his successor. Although Grbić said in post-match interviews that he was preparing Semeniuk for such a role, this, according to the press, is just a smokescreen. Śliwka can give more in defense, because with a slight discomfort for Fornal or Leon, Semeniuk was the first reserve in the receiver position in Paris. The coach will not deprive himself of the opportunity to make such an important change, the media in Poland are sure. Paradoxically, French statisticians have a more difficult task after the semifinal, because they have to prepare for two different defenders in the back row, comment the journalists.

The second injured player is Marcin Janusz. The setter suffered severe back pain during the match against the USA. This is an old injury of the Polish conductor, which is recurring at the most inconvenient moment. He had to be replaced by Grzegorz Łomacz. He made a great entrance and led the Poles to the final. It is not known whether the Polish physiotherapists and doctors will manage to restore Janusz to a state where he can play fully. The Poles hope that Łomacz will be able to replace him at a high level.

Unfortunately, Mateusz Bieniek will almost certainly not appear in the final. The middle blocker was injured at the end of the quarterfinal against Slovenia and was replaced by Bartłomiej Bołądź for the semifinal. The president of the Polish Olympic Committee, Radosław Piesiewicz, was quick to provide the information and before the semifinal against the USA announced that this was the end of the games for Bieniek.

Therefore, it is certain that the pair of middle blockers for the match against France will be Jakub Kochanowski and Norbert Huber. The Poles simply have no others.

There is no reason to expect that the Polish Volleyball Association will issue any announcement regarding the health of Janusz and Zatorski today, if they do not want to make things easier for their opponents. Most likely, we will find out about the health of the Polish stars when the final begins. Unless Radosław Piesiewicz decides to share the news again on the social network X.

Exactly on the former Twitter, Piesiewicz wrote that until the end of the tournament, Poland would not be able to count on its middle blocker. Over time, Piesiewicz changed the content of his tweet, but everyone understood that the first version, announcing the end of the Olympic tournament for Bieniek, was true. It was this post by the president of the Polish Olympic Committee that angered Nikola Grbić.

"We will talk about this in more detail after the tournament, but I don't think the head of the Polish Olympic Committee should deal with such matters," the Serb said after the semifinal match.
The journalists ofSport.plsought comment on the Piesiewicz case. At first, he did not understand why all the fuss. After a while, he added that he did not know that the information about the injury was confidential. "When initiating the exchange procedure, the staff did not indicate that this was confidential information or that it was subject to a time embargo. If that were the case, we would certainly respect it and provide this information in accordance with the guidelines," the president of the Polish Olympic Committee replied on the department's website.

sport.pl, wprost.pl

photos:volleyballworld.comandsport.pl