In a move that nobody expected, not even Moritz Fürste himself, the 35-year-old German legend is returning to the hockey stage for at least eight games with Royal Beerschot. 

They have convinced the 294-time international – whose trophy cabinet includes double Olympic gold, a World Cup title and three EHL successes – has been co-opted as cover after Argentina star Lucas Rossi was unable to link up with the club due to coronavirus restrictions. 

According to an interview with the hockey.de website, he has been training with Harvestehuder THC for a couple of weeks to help him get back up to speed but is in reasonable shape as the agency he runs organises fitness competitions in Europe and the USA. 

“I don’t want to cause unrest in the new structures in the UHC team by suddenly appearing again. I also discussed that with Benedikt Schmidt-Busse. Christoph Bechmann immediately liked the idea of training at the HTHC, which I was happy about.”  

He will link up with Beerschot – in what he calls “my Corona project” – the week after next with the potential to play his first games since June 2018.