Serbia NT named the three captains ahead of 2022 EuroBasket including Nemanja Bjelica who is facing an injury issue. His presence in the upcoming Eurobasket is doubtful due to his an injury that he suffered during the preparation game vs Montenegro.
During his press conference, Serbian national team coach Svetislav Pesic said that the team will wait Bjelica until the last moment. But Pesic implied the veteran forward might miss the rest of the preparation games and the FIBA World Cup qualifiers.
“Bjelica had a tough break, he doesn’t know how he got hurt either. He was put to rest, he won’t travel with the team for the prep game against Slovenia and will stay here,” Svetislav Pesic said.
“On Saturday or Sunday, he will be re-evaluated. He is a little better today, we’ll see how things go.”
“According to FIBA rules, we still have time to register the complete roster for the EuroBasket, so we don’t get too worried. Of course, we are sorry that he was injured, but what can we do? Others get injured too,” he continued (h/t Eurohoops.net).
The Serbians will take on Greece (August 25) and Turkey (August 28) in the first two games of the second round of the FIBA Basketball World Cup Qualifiers. Then they will travel to Prague for the first round of of the EuroBasket.
They will face the Netherlands, Finland, Poland, Israel and the Czech Republic in Group D.
