It had only been five minutes into the European Championship qualifiers on Wednesday when a Brazilian shot hit Andreas Palicka square in the face. The shot resulted in both a nosebleed and the loss of the contact lens in his left eye.
I've seen the situation a couple of times now and there's absolutely no blame on the shooter, he says.
I read the shot quite early and, if you interpret it in retrospect, end up in position too early, and simply miss the ball with my hand.
The veteran goalkeeper was forced to leave the field bleeding and was later taken to hospital to have the injury examined.
It was determined that there was bleeding in the left eye.
Faint bruise
On Monday, however, only a faint hint of a bruise remains.
We have strong hopes that I will be "fit and ready" for the European Championships, so it's very positive, says Andreas Palicka.
I feel generally in good shape and am going to see an eye specialist again on Wednesday to check it out one last time.
Sweden has three strong goalkeepers in the squad for the home championship, which kicks off for the Swedish side against the Netherlands in Malmö on Saturday.
In addition to veteran Andreas Palicka, national captain Michael Apelgren also has Fabian Norsten and Mikael "Äpplet" Appelgren available.
“Will cooperate”
Appelgren started both training sessions last week. The question is how much should you read into that?
We support each other. I have my role outside of the goalkeeping position as team captain as well, says Andreas Palicka.
I know you speculate a lot about it and you're welcome to do so. But for us, the main goal is just to save the shots.
For the national team management, it is also a luxury problem, notes national team captain Michael Apelgren.
"We agree that we have a goalkeeping trio. Then you can certainly read signals from how we coached in these training matches," he says.
But our starting point is that it is a trio that will collaborate.
