Sergey Ustiugov var savnet under verdenscupåpningen i Ruka forrige helg. Dette er situasjonen for vinneren av flere VM-gull og også seier i Tour de Ski totalt, slik han presenterer den i sin helhet på engelsk:

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Dear friends and fans of skiing, please pay attention for a moment!!

I would like to make a small appeal in connection with the current situation around my person and clarify the key points a little, excluding innuendo and various kinds of misinterpretations regarding me!

Dear friends, in short, I had a coronavirus while at a training camp in Val Senales, Italy, in the second half of October, and unfortunately, the consequences of this disease were quite severe for my body, so severe that I can’t even fully recover at the moment.

Everyone’s organisms are different, friends, and the reaction is also different, and it just so happens that my body tolerates the consequences of this notorious disease in this way.

I tried to start training in November, slowly getting involved, but all my attempts were, unfortunately, in vain, my body refused to adequately perceive the proposed load and each time I fell into a hole.

As a result, together with the coach, we decided to take a break, undergo a special examination…
at the moment I have already started to train slowly and Thank God my condition, although small steps, but stabilizes, I hope that in the near future I will be able to join the team and start training fully.

* Ovenstående har Sergey Ustiugov selv publisert på sin Instagram-side