"Due to the risk that Thursday's training may not be possible to carry out here in Marbella, we choose to go home in the morning instead of the afternoon and conduct the session at Stockholm Stadium," says national team manager Stefan Pettersson in a press release.
Enormous amounts of rain over eastern and southern Spain recently cost over 200 people their lives. The material damage after the floods that occurred, particularly in the areas around Valencia, was monumental.
A new, intense rainstorm is approaching the sun coast. Marbella, where the national team has been since Monday, risks being severely affected. Locally, large amounts of rain can fall over the next two days.
The weather institute issued an orange warning early on. This warning implies a danger to life and property and an appeal to be cautious and prepared was sent out.
The warning was updated shortly before 23 on Tuesday evening and a community warning was sent out to mobile phones.
Training-free Tuesday
The national team chose not to train collectively on Tuesday. Instead, the players were given the day off. Some played padel or golf, while others took a walk and enjoyed the sun.
It's simply a matter of load management for the players, says Stefan Pettersson about the decision to give the players a training-free day.
Trainings were planned for Wednesday and Thursday. Now the national team is opting for an early Wednesday training and will travel home on Thursday morning.
Stefan Pettersson said earlier on Tuesday:
The weather is something we can't do much about, so we're waiting and seeing how it develops. It's clear that no one hopes it will be so bad that we can't train. We'll see what we can do instead, in the worst case. We'll adapt to the situation.
We've naturally seen what's happened in Spain over the past weeks with bad weather and so on. We didn't plan this a week ago. It's long-term planning. So far, it seems to be a decent rain that's coming. Normally, these plans can handle rain well, he says.
Not going home earlier
Where do you draw the line?
It depends on how much water ends up on the pitch, if it's possible to train regular football. If it's possible to train, you do.
Now the assessment is that it won't be possible to train on Thursday.
The national team meets Slovakia at Strawberry arena on Saturday.
