Ukraine cry foul at ‘sabotage’

Ukraine suspect that the mystery stomach bug which struck down 10 members of their Euro 2012 squad was the result of an act of sabotage.

The players became ill on Tuesday ahead of their final warm-up match against Turkey, which they lost 2-0.

“It happened in Germany, but it is impossible to establish the causes — they all ate different food,” coach Oleg Blokhin claimed.

“It may have been sabotage, I do not know. It cannot be accidental.”

Ukraine team spokesman Oleksander Glyvinsky confirmed the affected players are on the road to recovery and should be fit for the co-hosts’ opening game against Sweden on Monday.

Ukraine’s team doctor Leonid Myronov said the first symptoms occurred on Monday afternoon when the team masseur felt ill. “He could barely finish his work with the team. At 4am [on Tuesday] Denys Garmash came to me with the same trouble,” Myronov said. “A bit later Taras Mykhalyk, Andriy Voronin, Artem Milevsky, Andriy Shevchenko and Anatoliy Tymoshchuk all complained of feeling indisposed.”

Midfielder Garmash was included in the starting line-up against Turkey despite his illness, desperate to prove himself after being dropped from friendlies against Estonia and Austria.

“He was in the roughest condition, he was vomiting violently and we had to try to clean his stomach using all available methods of detox. He was extremely eager to play and said before the game he felt okay,” added Myronov. After kicking off their campaign against the Swedes in Kiev, they face France and England in Group D.