GILAS Pilipinas coach Tim Cone said gunner Roger Pogoy is out of the national team roster for the 30th Southeast Asian Games.
Pogoy hurt his back in the waning seconds of TnT Katropa's PBA Governors Cup quarterfinal game against Magnolia on Sunday, which was later diagnosed as severe back spasm.
The TnT guard has been advised to take a rest for a few weeks, which meant skipping the SEA Games basketball tournamanent that kicks off on Dec 4 at the Mall of Asia Arena.
"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 lineup," Cone said on Wednesday.
"It's a big blow because he was one of our best shooters and two-way players. He will be difficult to replace."
At the moment, Cone said the national team is undecided yet whether Pogoy will be replaced or not in Gilas' final 12-man roster.
"At this point, we are exploring various scenarios before we settled on our response to RR's exclusion," said the Gilas mentor.
Since one of its players is injured, Gilas can still make a replacement on its lineup during the scheduled managers meeting on the eve of the basketball competitions.
The national team can select any of the players it had in the original long list of roster it initally submitted to the Philippine SEA Games Organizing Committee (Phisgoc).
Included in that list were Greg Slaughter, Art Dela Cruz, and Scottie Thompson, the last three players cut off from Gilas' final 12-man roster.
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