GILAS Piliipinas shooting big man Carl Tamayo will be out for more than a month after suffering a major ankle sprain during the fourth window of the FIBA World Cup qualifiers.
National coach Tim Cone said the 6-foot-8 Tamayo went down with a Grade 2 sprain on his ankle and will be out from four to six weeks.
READ Tamayo injury dampens Gilas' dramatic win over Jordan
The former University of the Philippines Maroons standout sustained the injury early in the third quarter of the Philippines’ 82-81 overtime win over Jordan on Friday night at the Mall of Asia Arena.
“I’m sure his team from Korea is not really happy,” said Cone, referring Tamayo’s Korean Basketball League team Changwon LG Sakers
“But you know, those things happen.”
Tamayo finished with eight points, a rebound, and an assist before spraining his ankle, never to return to the game again. He was 3-of-4 from the field and buried a long 3 at the halftime buzzer as Gilas cut down an 18-point deficit to just 44-39 at the half.
“I thought that show by Carl at the end of the half was a big one. That gave us the confidence coming into the halftime,” said Cone of Tamayo’s shot.
The swollen ankle forced Cone and his coaching staff to leave out Tamayo from the official 12-man roster for the game against Iran and replace him with another big in Justin Arana.
Tamayo wasn’t around when Gilas took down Iran Sunday night, 68-56, also at the MoA Arena.
Cone disclosed there were efforts to keep Tamayo in the lineup in the hope he’d be able to play through the injury against Iran.
“We were hoping he can get through it, but after some really extensive therapy, he still have a hard time putting pressure on his foot,” said the Gilas coach. “So we made the decision late (Saturday night) that we’ll put Justin (Arana) in.”
But Cone is confident Tamayo will be able to join Gilas in the fifth window this November.
“He’s young and he’ll recover from it easily,” said the 68-year-old coach.
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