The shock is deep – not only with the ice hockey cracks of the Black Wings or with the handball players of HC Linz AG, who have been able to rely on their team doctor for years. Werner Kleschpis was not only a doctor, but also a friend and companion in difficult situations. He usually had a mischievous smile on his lips, always had an open ear for various concerns and confidence in his eyes.
“We’ll manage that again,” said the native of Linz, who helped one or the other competitive athlete faster than expected. Kleschpis died suddenly and unexpectedly at the age of 61 last night.
“We also try to fool around”
The “Doc” who lived in Puchenau was a tireless worker, available to his patients almost around the clock – and at high speed. He rushed from one operation to the next, from one game to the next. He often met the Black Wings’ puck hunters, for whom he was on the gang last Saturday’s 3-2 win over Innsbruck, with a dry sense of humour. “We also try to be silly, to be fun, to take the pressure off the players,” Kleschpis felt challenged to a certain extent as a psychologist.
“What happens on the ice is a no brainer to what else happens,” said Kleschpis in an OÖN interview nine years ago. “If I don’t give proper credit to players’ injuries, they’re already looking a little. But of course it’s different when you have to treat or amputate a paraplegic patient.” Kleschpis, as senior physician for orthopaedics, accident surgery and sports traumatology at the Kepler University Hospital in Linz, was confronted with such tragedies several times.
Then something like a “valve” was needed to be able to deal with the mental stress. “As a doctor, I don’t take these fates home with me, that wouldn’t work,” said the family man. His therapeutic crisis management, if you will, often began on the way home on two wheels instead of four. Mountain biking was his great passion. “In 2011 I was on the Gis 203 times,” he said. Despite the tight schedule, there was also time for golf (handicap 14), football and handball, skiing, sailing and diving.
The list of teams that Kleschpis, a proven knee specialist, looked after as team doctor is long. Whether Black Wings, HC Linz AG, SK St. Magdalena, Donau Linz, Union St. Florian, Edelweiss Linz, Upper Austrian Handball Federation or, a long time ago, FC Linz (1994) and LASK (1995/96) – they all had that man familiar, who is now gone much too soon.
Kleschpis was able to empathize with the athletes, having been an athlete himself at a remarkable level. He played for Post SV Graz in the national handball league.
In the coming days and weeks there will be many minutes of silence on sports fields and in halls for “Klesi” or “Kleschi”, as they called him. He rest in peace.
Source: Nachrichten
