An amateur ice hockey player has described the “incomprehensible” moment when a prone teammate was beaten with a stick during a game in Sochi, speaking after footage emerged of the bloody aftermath of the gruesome alleged attack.
An initial video from the Sochi Hockey Cup tournament in Russia appeared to show a player from HC Appolonoff being brutally ambushed and beaten with a stick as he lay on the ice, with others seemingly launching punches at his head.
Footage posted by the team then showed the purported victim, named as Alexander Dzyzar, stumbling away from the savage scrap with blood dripping from his head as he was propped up on his way to receive medical attention.
Dzyzar was then filmed having what looked like a horrific head wound attended to by a doctor before the team reported that he left in an ambulance.
“He simply hit his head with a stick until it breaks,” wrote one player, Andrey Kozlov, describing the troubling dust-up on Instagram.
“His second teammate decided to support and attacked from behind to finish off Alexander.
“How normal do you think that such unbalanced…people surround us? What happened, I think, will be incomprehensible to all normal people.
“Thanks to all the guys for quickly attending and providing first aid to the victim after the incident.”
Kozlov, who called on viewers to comment and share the post, claimed that the blows had broken through Dzyzar’s helmet and caused him concussion.
Appolonoff said that two opposition players had been expelled from the tournament after the attack, with the alleged back-up brawler approaching from behind before “brutally finishing off our player.”
“Yesterday’s game did not end very well,” they added in what appeared to be something of an understatement.
“As a result, Alexander has a head injury and concussion. The player dropped out of the game in the middle of the season.”
The team asked the public to leave comments and discuss what they thought constituted “normal behavior” by players, with some of the replies suggesting that sporting sanctions and even criminal proceedings could be acceptable punishments.
Alexey Ostrovsky, who appeared to have been one of the Appolonoff players tagged in the video, wrote: “It is not visible here that this animal was hitting until it broke the stick.
“It is not visible that the blood flowed like a fountain. What’s this? And then he waves his handle like ‘let’s continue?’ If this is a challenge, then I am ready to answer for the honor of the team.”
Appolonoff concluded by telling Dzyzar: “Get well and get back on the ice as soon as possible.”
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