NO STAR FOR JAPAN: Brett Herbutz also passes Olympic qualifier due to abdominal muscle injury | Yellow tigers

Her absence against Turkey in the 1/8 finals of the European Championship was a bad omen, and now Brett Herbutz has to cancel the finals of the Olympic Qualification Tournament in Japan with the Yellow Tigers.

The Yellow Tiger started the tournament with a minor abdominal muscle injury, but played the first four group stage matches against Hungary, Slovenia, Ukraine and Poland.

She got some rest against Serbia, but the tear in her abdominal muscle was too much for her to take any further risk.

This also applies to the next tournament. Starting next Saturday, September 16, the Belgian volleyball women will meet the best 7 countries with the aim of qualifying for the Paris Games.

The tournament opens – without Herbutz – against Bulgaria, followed by matches against Puerto Rico, Argentina, Peru and hosts Japan, Brazil and Turkey.

So accessing the games will be a very difficult task. The Belgians especially want to perform well against lower-ranked countries in order to earn ranking points and improve their position.

National coach Chris Vansnik regretted Herbots’ absence, but is trying to stay positive. “Brett’s absence is, of course, a huge loss.”

“Against Turkey, future European champions, they proved that our squad has quality and resilience. We’ll have to deal with their absence creatively and collectively. It also provides the opportunity for other players to stand up and show themselves.”

There are three qualifying groups, the top two qualifiers from each group will advance to the Olympic Games. This means that there are still 5 OS tickets left after the tournaments. They will be distributed according to the world rankings in June 2024. The goal of the Tigers is to collect a lot of points in Japan.