CALVIN Abueva has been ruled out of Titan Ultra’s game against his former team Magnolia on Friday in the PBA 50th Season Philippine Cup.
No less than Giant Risers coach John Cardel said to SPIN.ph on the eve of the game that Abueva will not be in action due to a hamstring injury.
Unless there is a last-minute change of heart, Abueva will not be going up against the team that he played for from 2021 to 2025, his second-longest tenure after his first ball club Alaska which he called home for eight years starting when he was drafted in 2012.
Abueva hurt his hamstring during the first quarter of Titan Ultra’s blowout defeat to Converge, 129-92, last Saturday. He only logged four minutes and 47 seconds and had two points and one rebound.
Friday was supposed to be his first game against the Hotshots, who traded him to NorthPort last June for William Navarro.
Abueva, who won his second Best Player of the Conference award during the 2021 Philippine Cup with Magnolia, played for three games with the Batang Pier after the trade, but none of them were against his ex-team.
He was absorbed by Titan Ultra after it purchased the NorthPort franchise before the start of the 50th Season.
Abueva's hot start gets extinguished
Before the injury, the 37-year-old Abueva had a blazing start with the Giant Risers where he hit a new career-high of 41 points.
According to PBA statistics chief Fidel Mangonon, Abueva, at exactly 37 years eight months, and four days old, was the second-oldest player to drop 40 or more points after Ramon Fernandez, who had 41 points at age 37 years, 10 months, and 19 days old in Game 1 of the 1991 All-Filipino Conference third-place series.
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