Scottie Thompson is out for at least three weeks after suffering a hand fracture

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

What an unfortunate update for the Gilas Pilipinas men’s national basketball team.

After spending the past few weeks in Europe in their ongoing training camp for the FIBA World Cup, Gilas Pilipinas just received a huge blow after superstar point guard Scottie Thompson was ruled out for the rest of the international trip due to a metacarpal fracture in his right hand.

The Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) announced the recent development going on inside the Gilas training camp currently taking place in Kaunas, Lithuania.

Thompson suffered his right-hand injury during one of their practice sessions and had to be brought to a near hospital for his X-ray results which turned out to be worse than expected.

The SBP then added that right after Gilas will be arriving in the Philippines from the international training camp, Thompson will be re-evaluating his injury with several specialists assigned to oversee his development.

A metacarpal fracture in a hand will usually take at least three to four weeks before healing depending on the severity of the area.

With the FIBA global games set to kick off on August 25, the SBP and the rest of the Gilas coaching staff will have to contemplate whether they will replace the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel guard or wait for his injury to fully heal.

The current 21-man pool of the national team is still plagued with injuries with the likes of Carl Tamayo, RR Pogoy, Jordan Heading, and Bobby Ray Parks Jr.

Thompson’s addition to the official injury list of Gilas will just make things worse especially since the FIBA World Cup is now fast approaching.

What will head coach Chot Reyes do? Will he ask for the help of the PBA again to lend him some more players or will he stick with this setup?