Balandin, Garibov, back to training in January

MAG team captain, Emin Garibov, will return to full training in January after a break to rehabilitate a shoulder injury

Albert Starobutsev of Tass has confirmed via an interview with head coach Valeri Alfosov the status of gymnasts competing for the senior national team.  In addition to the return of the two stars Garibov and Balandin, he also explained that Russia's only gold medallist at the recent Nanning World Championships, Denis Ablyazin, is resting following an operation on his nose.  He also gave details of Russian participants at some upcoming end of season competitions.

'In April this year, Garibov had an operation on a sore shoulder.  This was a serious surgical procedure and excluded the possibility for the gymnast to compete this season. Balandin also has  problems with the shoulder joint, and had to undergo surgery shortly before the World Championships in China, which was held in early October.'
 
'Balandin will begin to train only at the beginning of next year', - said Alfosov.  'We hope to see him back on the team in January. He is now at home undergoing rehabilitation after surgery and is in close contact with his doctor. As for Garibov, he is now based at "Round Lake." He is slowly trying his hand on the equipment, and will be back in full training from January 2015.'

Denis Ablyazin is now also missing workouts. "He just recently had surgery on his nasal septum and tonight returned from Germany', he told Tass. 'He is missing the current team camp, but in December will resume training at Round Lake'.

Russian men's team camp began on October 26th. After this, Nikolai Kuksenkov and David Belyavski will travel to Stuttgart, Germany to perform at the Challenge Cup. Women's team leader Aliya Mustafina, and Alla Sosnitskaia will also represent the team
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'Three more of our athletes will be performing at the same time in another tournament, which will take place in Germany.   And we will always have a couple of the strongest gymnasts at the December Voronin Cup which will be held in Moscow' - added Alfosov.