By Karolos Grohmann
PARIS (Reuters) – Australia’s women soccer players have arrived in Paris without some of their luggage, including key medical equipment, that has been stuck in Spain, Australia team chief Anna Meares said on Sunday.
The soccer team, whose first group game is in four days’ time against Germany in Marseille, will now need to have some of that equipment replaced locally before the luggage is eventually shipped to France.
“It is still currently in Spain and we are working with Football Australia to resolve this issue,” Meares told a press conference.
“They are still able to train and prepare, and they have their training and playing kit with them. But there are some items of personal luggage, some medical items and other equipment that is still on the ground in Spain.”
She said team officials were already replacing some of the equipment such as tape strapping, scissors and resuscitation kits, in Marseille.
“This luggage was meant to be on several flights yesterday (Saturday) but it did not happen. It’s not ideal, but hopefully today we can make some progress and have some of the personal items and medical equipment purchased in Marseille as necessary,” she said.
It is not the first luggage mishap to hit Team Australia ahead of the Paris Games starting on July 26. Earlier in July a container ship carrying all the Team Australia uniforms crashed into another ship near Gibraltar.
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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