My Knee Hurts, But I Desire Trophies

Although he has been dragging a knee injury from the World Championship, Lackovic is playing matches on three battlefields for Flensburg.

Winning against Barcelna, Flensburg placed itself in the Champions League semi-finals. Blazenko Lackovic played another game unhealed:

-It is hard for me to talk of my play, although I scored three goals, I have not been training normally since I came back from the world Championship. I struggle with my knee, play a game and then train a day or two. Operation is inevitable, I will go for a magnetic resonance in a few days, I have to see what state my cartilage is in.

A tight schedule does not make the decision any easier. Flensburg heads for medals in each competition:

-We are playing the Cup semi-finals with Kiel in Hamburg, and the Champions League semi-finals, so many good things, and an operation would distance me from all of this. In this kind of a pace of matches and practices, it is inevitable, but it would keep me off the court for 4-6 weeks, and any comeback too soon brings the risk of a new injury. Desire in me to play everything is too great. I operated my meniscus twice already so I have experience with it. I must be smart, but at the moment, I decided to take a chance, do as much as I can.

Barcelona was not even close to compensate minus ten from the first match:

-For some, it did not look like the match was thrilling, but our goalkeeper had a very good day. When the game broke down on two occasions, in the second half when they had a shot at reaching 6-7 points of difference, which is quite dangerous, he defended two penalties and two counter-attacks. We came back at a three-point difference and managed to sustain it towards the end. I was with Vori and Losert before the game, we went out for dinner with our girlfriends. I did not tease them too much because the defeat itself was hard for me. We talked about other topics. I do knot know all the scores, but if I could chose, I would pick Gummersbach, and then Kiel, not the winner of the Portand- Ciudad Real encounter.

Croatia obtained the title of the World Championship 2000 host. Still, it seems as though problems keep us away from playing before our supporters:

-Playing before our supporters would be the icing on the cake for our generation. World Championship in Croatia, each game would fill up the sports hall, we would surely take one of the medals. I know problems linked with these halls` construction exists, but people should recognise the opportunity, how it all pays off, and not link this to handball only, the newly constructed halls would be multipurpose. If we have smart managers, then we will have the championship in our country because we want to cure painful injuries from the World Championship in Germany.