Stabbed Bulgarian Wrestling Champion Stabilized

Stanka Zlateva (l), Mihail Ganev (center) and coach, Simeon Shterev, arrive from Moscow where the two won gold medals at the world wrestling championship in September. Photo by BGNES

The condition of the Bulgarian wrestling champion, Mihail Ganev, is stable, the Head of the Intensive Care Unit at the Gabrovo hospital, Dr. Georgi Ivanov, informs Monday.

Ganev, Bulgaria's world freestyle wrestling champion, was stabbed in a night club brawl in the central city of Gabrovo, early in the morning of December 26th.

Dr. Ivanov says the wrestler will be moved to another unit in one to two days while doctors now are monitoring his condition. Ganev will need a recovery period of a month and a half, but after that he should be able to resume training and competing without problems.

The treating physicians confirm the wrestler had 5 stab-wounds with 2 of them – in the stomach and in the back – being very serious.

Meanwhile, Ganev's coach, Simeon Shterev, said in a Monday interview for the TV channel bTV, Mihail would not  be able to participate in the European Wrestling Championship in March because of the wounds and called the stabbing a "psychopath's act."

Shterev confirmed statements of the family the wrestler got involved in the brawl over his attempt to prevent it and said "Misho is a calm and cheerful person."

In the same interview, Bulgaria's Competitor of the Year, female wrestling champion, Stanka Zlateva, confirmed Ganev was a "good and shy" person, adding she even had a hard time believing he agreed to go to a night club.

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