Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 12) — A positive development for Gilas Pilipinas as Dwight Ramos can possibly train with the national team soon.
The 24-year-old is dealing with a knee injury which prevented him from joining Gilas’ recent tune-up games in Europe.
Head coach Chot Reyes said results of the medical examination done by the team’s doctor on Ramos showed there is no serious injury.
“The initial reading of our doctor from the MRI of Dwight is that there’s no significant damage so he’s good to go, just minor bone bruise and no meniscal damage. That’s pending official reading of the actual result from the official radiologist,” the veteran tactician told CNN Philippines’ Sports Desk.
Reyes also shared an update on the status of Scottie Thompson who sustained a hand injury during the national team’s practice in Lithuania.
“We already know it’s a metacarpal fracture. We need to find out now how long will it take. We’re working on a worst case scenario. It’s very unfortunate what happened to Scottie. That’s why we have a pool. We wanted to keep it open because we never really know what’s going to happen,” the Gilas coach said.
Reyes said one good thing that came out of Gilas’ training camp in Europe is it rejuvenated their frontcourt, who were previously nursing different injuries, to competitive form.
“All of our bigs (June Mar Fajardo, Japeth Aguilar, AJ Edu, Ange Kouame, and Poy Erram) went into the camp recovering from injury. The good news is I think they were conditioned in the camp. They were able to get back not only into condition but also started getting into game condition,” he said.
Gilas will resume preparations for the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup as it flies to China for a pocket tournament.
The FIBA World Cup will run from Aug. 25 to Sept. 10 in the Philippines, Japan, and Indonesia.
