German national basketball coach Álex Mumbrú speaks about his serious illness during the European Championship. The Spaniard admits it was crazy to leave the hospital during the tournament to join the German national team.
Álex Mumbrú, head coach of the German national basketball team and gold medal winner at the 2025 European Championship, has spoken about his serious illness during the tournament and revealed how bad his condition was. The Spaniard also admitted that it was crazy to leave the hospital prematurely to help his team on site during the knockout phase.
“In retrospect it was, but at that time I didn’t know as much about pancreatitis as I do today. I didn’t think about what I was risking, I didn’t think about my life or my health. I wanted to be with the team in the final round in Riga at any cost,” he described in an interview with the Spanish Marca .
“We had a great chance to win gold. I knew that. We had prepared everything down to the last detail. It was one of those times when you just know: ‘We’re going to win.’ When you look at it now, it was madness.”
Mumbrú, who has been Germany’s national coach since August 2024, became seriously ill at the start of the basketball European Championship preliminary round and followed the group phase from the hospital. For the knockout phase, the Spaniard joined the German national team in Riga, Latvia, but after a few days he withdrew to the background and let his assistant coach Alan Ibrahimagic do the coaching.
After the triumph and winning the gold medal, Mumbrú visited a doctor in Barcelona who made him aware of the risk the coach had taken by leaving the hospital early. “He told me the following: ‘Álex, you won gold, but you risked much more.'”
Mumbrú admitted that during the European Championship he had “argued a lot with the doctor of the German Association,” who “also took a lot of risks. But it was very difficult for me not to be with my team.”
The national coach could not rule out a health setback during the tournament. “We were prepared to return home if my condition worsened. Also, I was lucky that a family friend and her family had traveled to Riga with my family. She is a doctor and took care of me during those days, gave me three infusions every day and monitored me closely.”
The Spaniard described the time in Riga as “really tough, but the victory was a great reward. After winning the title, I faced a long recovery period. I didn’t celebrate anything.”
That something was wrong with him and his body, Mumbrú noticed immediately after arriving in Tampere, Finland, where Germany played the European Championship preliminary round.
“We land with the charter plane to start the first phase of the European Championship, and I feel unwell, I’m somewhat nauseous and I have severe abdominal pain. In the hotel room after we arrive, I have to vomit. I vomit several times, get scared and call the doctors of the German Basketball Association,” he described.
“My stomach starts to swell, almost like a pregnant woman. I feel a very strong pain that’s hard to put into words. I’ve never experienced anything like this. I’ve been injured often as a player, but I’ve never had such pain, and I’ve broken my hand and some bones in my leg. The doctor comes up, examines me and I’m taken to the hospital by ambulance. I’m already very confused because the pain is unbearable. There it was quite difficult to control the pain, and only when I went to the intensive care unit did it subside a little.”
In the hospital he could then “do nothing but endure. I was like a zombie in the hospital. From the third day I recovered a bit and sat at the computer. I started looking at things and preparing the games by phone. I did things without feeling completely comfortable in the hospital. Emotionally I was down, but because of the pain, because I was going through a difficult time.”