CHRIS Newsome said he suffered an MCL sprain in his left knee that could take a maximum of five weeks to fully heal, but he's not ruling himself out of the PBA Philippine Cup semifinals where Meralco is now one loss away from elimination.
Newsome was in uniform but didn’t play in Game 4, his left knee wrapped in a protective gear. His absence was one of the factors that worked against the Bolts as they were hammered by TNT, 102-83, at the SM Mall of Asia Arena.
READ Newsome feared out of Meralco-TNT playoffs due to knee injury
“Right now, it’s just going through the recovery process and taking the precautions I need to do for me to be able to get back on the court,” said Newsome on Sunday. “So listening to the team doctors and the team physicians and just taking it one step at a time until I’m able to get back on the court.”
“But as of now, that's the diagnosis and I'm just going to go with that and wish my team luck for now,” said Newsome.
Newsome said he is going to use the next two days to heal up, and see whether he can play on Wednesday, although he admitted that the actual timeline for recovery will take a couple of weeks.
“As of right now, it can be anywhere between three to five weeks from what we know. There is a possibility it could be shorter depending on the severity of the sprain. Right now, we’re just waiting for the inflammation to go down a bit and I will be able to clear things up to where we have a better timeline for my return,” said Newsome.
The Meralco star admitted he's doubtful for Wednesday’s Game 5 at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum where the Bolts will begin the daunting task of trying to overhaul a 1-3 deficit in the best-of-seven semifinal affair.
“That will be a tough one to try to reach, but it does help that we have those extra days in between the game. So I’ll be doing my share of recovery work from now until Wednesday to see if I can get out on the court,” said Newsome.
“But it’s already a good sign that I’m able to walk and stand on my own. It’s just a matter of getting the clearance from the doctor to make sure everything, structurally, is good to go. And then once I get that clearance to go, then there is a possibility you could see me again,” said Newsome.
Needless to say, it was tough for Newsome to watch from the sidelines and not help the team, but he remained active by voicing out his thoughts to his teammates.
“It’s really a tough situation for me to just be on the sidelines and not be able to go out there and fight with my brothers, especially during this time, being in the situation that we are in. It’s a tough hill to climb, and I know, being out there with my brothers would help them a lot.
“But again, I want to reiterate the fact that I have full confidence in the team from the first guy all the way down to our last guy on the bench. I really have confidence. The guys put in the work, I see them every day in practice, we battle every day in practice, so I know that they’re capable of doing a lot of the same things that I'm capable of doing,” said Newsome.
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