WITH six days left before Gilas Pilipinas opens its 2019 Southeast Asian Games campaign, wingman Roger Pogoy has been ruled out of the squad after MRI results showed yesterday that he has a disc bulge in his lumbosacral joint.
“The prognosis is he (Pogoy) will need a couple of weeks before he can return to the court.
That unfortunately will eliminate him from the Gilas line-up” Gilas coach Tim Cone was quoted as saying by online sports portal spin.ph.
“It’s a big blow because he’s one of our best shooters and two-way players. He will be difficult to replace,” he added.
Cone can chose among his reserves Greg Slaughter, Art dela Cruz, and Scottie Thompson as a replacement for Pogoy. The change in line-up can be made during the managers’ meeting on Dec. 3.
The 6-foot-2 Pogoy will need some time to recover from the injury. Pogoy hurt his back late in TNT’s nail-biting 98-97 squeaker over erstwhile defending champion Magnolia last Monday night.
Cone named his Ginebra players LA Tenorio, Stanley Pringle, and Japeth Aguilar to lead the final 12-man line-up for the 11-nation, 12-day joust.
Completing the squad are San Miguel stats June Mar Fajardo, Marcio Lassiter, and Chris Ross; Troy Rosario of the KaTropa ; Northport’s Christian Standhardinger; Vic Manuel of Alaska; Phoenix’s Matthew Wright; and Kiefer Ravena of NLEX.
The basketball competitions of the SEAG are slated from Dec. 4 to 10, with the Filipino dribblers emerging as the heavy-favorites to win their 13th straight gold and 18th overall.
The nationals kick off their gold medal bid when they tackle Singapore on Dec. 4 at the Mall of Asia Arena.
“At this point, we are exploring various scenarios before we settled on our response to RR’s exclusion,” said Cone.
Gilas can select any of the players it had in the original long list of roster it initially submitted to the Philippine SEA Games Organizing Committee. — Michael Jugado