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The situation with the Finland’s women’s hockey team appears to be improving after an outbreak of norovirus depleted its roster and forced the postponement of its first game at the Olympics.
Eleven skaters and all three goaltenders took part in practice Friday in the aftermath of Finland’s opener against Canada getting pushed to Feb. 12. That is up from eight skaters and two goalies on the ice Thursday when the remaining 13 players were either infected or in quarantine.
Finland is scheduled to face the U.S. on Saturday. It was not immediately clear if that game will be played on time.
The stomach illness began spreading earlier this week, and practice Wednesday was canceled. The team has been in limbo since.
“Unfortunately, it’s part of life and you feel bad for the Finnish women,” Denmark men’s player Oliver Lauridsen said when asked about his concern over norovirus, which is highly communicable. “You’ve got to wash your hands. You’ve got to be careful and whatever.
“And then there’s a good medical staff here to help. Just the fact that they would postpone a game also means that there is help to get and solutions in place in case stuff like this happens.”