Innsbruck (pps) Austria’s national luge team is plagued by injuries in the Olympic winter. Sonja Manzenreiter, sixth at the 2005 World Championships and currently fifth overall in the Viessmann Luge World Cup, cannot compete at Koenigssee. The 30-year-old suffered a slipped disc during training on her home-track at Innsbruck-Igls. Doctors and physiotherapists will try to get Sonja Manzenreiter fit again for the event at Igls the following week (January 13-15).

Last season, Sonja Manzenreiter also had a training accident and could compete only sporadically, three years ago she even competed in a World Cup event with a ruptured crucial ligament in her knee. The sister of Austrian sports coordinator Robert Manzenreiter has already fulfilled the criteria of the Austrian Olympic Committee for the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Torino (February 10-26).