BERLIN (AP) — Hertha Berlin suspended goalkeeper Marius Gersbeck while police investigate his alleged involvement in a fight with another man who later needed hospital treatment.
Gersbeck was suspended “until further notice” according to a decision by Hertha managing director, Thomas E. Herrich, and sports director, Benjamin Weber, on Monday.
“The reason for the suspension are the alleged circumstances around the training camp at Zell am See in Austria,” Hertha said.
Herrich added that the 28-year-old goalie “left the team hotel without permission.”
The club said earlier Monday that Gersbeck left their training camp the day before and that it did not wish to make further comment on the situation while police were investigating. It did not say whether Gersbeck, who returned to Hertha from Karlsruher SC only last month, will remain at the club after the alleged incident.
Salzburg police said in a statement on Sunday that “a 28-year-old German man and a 22-year-old local man got into an argument on a street in the town of Zell am See” the night before. They added that the row “escalated into a physical altercation,” and the younger man was taken to hospital with unspecified injuries.
Hertha brought Gersbeck back to his hometown club for a reported fee of 300,000 euros ($337,000). He has ties to the club’s ultra fans and was seen as an identification figure to help it emerge from its sporting crisis.
Hertha was relegated from the Bundesliga last season.
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The Associated Press