Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) - Ice hockey national player Alexander Ehl from the Düsseldorfer EG is suffering from glandular fever. It is unclear how long this year's World Cup participant will be out. Manager Niki Mondt assumed that the 22-year-old striker would quickly return to training when DEG started training on Wednesday. The new DEG coach Roger Hansson said on the other hand: "I'm prepared for him to be out for the whole of August." The season in the German Ice Hockey League starts in mid-September.
In any case, the squad of Düsseldorf is rather thin in defense. Hansson currently only has seven defenders available. For cost reasons, Mondt wants to wait and see. "That's a bit small and you can't go through the season with seven defenders. It's clear that we'll do something sooner or later," said Mondt, but wants to wait and see for cost reasons.
Nevertheless, DEG wants to attack the top third of the table with the new coach and top transfer Henrik Haukeland in the new season. "We can be a winning team. I count us among the top clubs," said the Norwegian national keeper Haukeland, who surprisingly switched from EHC Red Bull Munich to DEG as one of the best DEL keeper last year. Munich had signed the German national goalkeeper and native of Düsseldorf Mathias Niederberger for this season early on.
"He's one of the best keepers in the league, if not the best. That's clearly our top transfer," said Mondt.
