Jochen Schoeps, assisted by Marcus Boehme, block Tunisia's Marouen Garci at the 2014 FIVB World Championship in Katowice.
Lausanne, Switzerland, November 15, 2016 - After a year's absence due to shoulder injury, Germany's captain Jochen Schoeps is gradually returning to action in the Polish PlusLiga and looks ahead to maybe rejoining the German National Team for the 2017 FIVB World League.
Schoeps, who celebrated his 33rd birthday last month, made his first brief appearance, coming on as a sub in a couple of sets, in Asseco Resovia Rzeszow's four-set win over Lotos Trefl Gdansk in Round 3 of the Polish league on October 21. He was also briefly present in the defending Polish champions' defeats against Jastrzebski Wegiel in four sets and against GKS Katowice in five.
"Overall my shoulder is getting better," said Schoeps, who captained Germany to the bronze medal at the 2014 FIVB Volleyball World Championship in Poland. "It is not yet as it was before and I still look at getting back to 100 per cent," he added recently in an
interview for the German Volleyball Federation (DVV) website (in German).
Jochen Schoeps attacks for Asseco Resovia Rzeszow in his Polish PlusLiga comeback match against Gdansk earlier this season."There are days when things are going really well and days where things are not going so well. There is certainly still room for improvement, but I'm on a good way. I still have to work on movement and power."
Resovia, this year captained by the German opposite himself, have been struggling in the PlusLiga and are currently in fifth place in the standings, on a 5-3 record.
Their fate as defending champions, and Germany's chances of advancing to Group 2 of the FIVB Volleyball World League after narrowly missing out on promotion last year when they fell to Slovenia in the Group 3 final in Frankfurt may well all depend on how quickly Schoeps gets back in full form.
Quick links - FIVB:
2017 FIVB Volleyball World League