BIG man Jake Pascual finally returns to the Phoenix roster more than a year after suffering an ACL injury.
The seven-year forward joined the Fuel Masters in their scrimmages for the second straight time on Friday at the Lyceum-Batangas gym and admitted feeling a little bit weird being back on the court again.
“Ayos naman. Nakakailang pa lang. Pero masasanay din ulit,” said the 32-year-old power forward out of San Beda.
Pascual was acquired by the Fuel Masters from Alaska late in 2019 for a 2020 second-round pick. The 6-foot-4 native of Tarlac had yet to play his official game with his new ballclub when the unfortunate incident happened.

Pascual went down with an ACL injury in the Fuel Masters’ tune-up game against the visiting Dankook University of Korea.
The team’s 87-79 win in which Pascual came through with 11 points proved to be a costly one as its new acquisition had to go surgery prior to the start of the PBA 45th season.
That made him miss the entire Philippine Cup bubble as Pascual rehabilitated from the injury.
Slowly but surely, Phoenix will try to ease the former D-League Best Player of the Conference awardee back to its main rotation.
“Jake got his clearance already from Doc (George) Canlas. So one year din. But he joined us already as part of our 25-man pool. He will be doing his kaunting pagpag with us,” said coach Topex Robinson.
“We’re not going to rush him naman kasi nga ang tagal din naman niyang hindi nakalaro. But what’s good is na-clear din siya to go to practice with us already, so at least nadagdagan pa kami ng isang big man.”
The return of Pascual bolstered the Phoenix frontcourt that recently lost Calvin Abueva, Dave Marcelo, and Jay-R Reyes, but added veteran Vic Manuel, and rookies Larry Muyang and Nick Demusis to complement mainstays Jason Perkins and Justine Chua.
Pascual knows it will take some more time before he finally gets a full taste of the playing court again.
But he vows to be patient in his comeback bid.
“More practice pa ang kailangan,” he said.
Get more of the latest sports news & updates on SPIN.ph