Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 6) — Japeth Aguilar and Christian Standhardinger will not be around for the Philippine men’s basketball team in the first window of the 2021 FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers, according to Gilas Pilipinas program director Tab Baldwin.

“Japeth is out. He’s informed us that he’s going on a delayed honeymoon. So he’s not available for the first window,” Baldwin bared after the national squad’s first practice Thursday at the Moro Lorenzo Sports Center in Quezon City.

Aguilar married his longtime girlfriend and former beauty queen Cassandra Naidas in October 2019. Meanwhile, Standhardinger is still recovering from a leg inury.

“Obviously Christian has gone through his issues and that’s very real, we understand that. We don’t want to put any player in jeopardy because he’s rehabbing an injury and he’s on a specific time table. We just have to accept that for this window,” Baldwin said.

The two are part of the 24-man Gilas pool which will see action against Thailand on February 20 then play a road game versus Indonesia on February 23.

Standhardinger was present in Thursday’s practice but he was wearing street clothes. He explained why he begged off to play for the national team in the upcoming window.

“There’s a certain regimen, there needs to be a game plan when do I need to peak and when not. Unfortunately I got a late notice for this window so I can’t peak and I cannot risk it because my body is not ready yet. That injury is still there and I did not do the things I need to do to compensate for the injury with my muscles and with everything else,” the Filipino-German big man said.

CNN Philippines Correspondent Pauline Verzosa contributed to this report.

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