CHiCAGO - Barely 24 hours after the catastrophic injury that shook the PBA, super import Bol Bol and TNT are slowly picking up the pieces.
Bol is “currently working on his flight to the US,” a league source told me on Saturday night.
The 7'3 import is bound for New York to undergo surgery on what is now believed to be “a full tear” on his left Achilles. a separate source revealed.
READ: TNT taps Malick Diouf as Bol Bol replacement
Dr.Martin O'Malley, a distinguished foot and ankle orthopedic surgeon at the Hospital of Special Surgery in Manhattan, will repair Bol’s torn Achilles.
O'Malley is the team orthopedist for the Brooklyn Nets of the NBA and he also performed the surgery to repair the ruptured Achilles of TNT resident import Rondae Hollis-Jefferson last year.
It will be a long road to recovery for Bol, between six months to a year that includes intensive rehabilitation.
The Tropang 5G, on the other hand, are scampering to find a replacement to salvage what was shaping into a successful PBA Commissioner’s Cup title defense before Bol got hurt.
NEXT MAN UP
Former up Fighting Maroon Malif Diouf has been tapped as a temporary replacement but I’ve been told it’s not a guarantee that he will play in tomorrow’s Game 3 versus Meralco because: “maraming requirements na baka hindi mahabol,” the source added.
At this stage of the conference, there is little hope for TNT to sign a big—name, big-credentialed player.
After Marquesse Chriss turned down an opportunity to play in the Philippines, several NBA agents I spoke to said players are unlikely to accept a “ high-risk, low-reward” job on the other side of the world in a tournament that has weeks left to play.
In a blink of an eye, in one ill-fated fall, both Bol’s and TNT’s fortunes changed overnight.
Sports can be so much fun and entertaining, that’s why people from all walks of life embrace it.
But on the flip side, it can also be cold and cruel.
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