By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
Reported to be dealing with a swollen knee, Nikola Milutinov is available for the Serbia senior national team.
Communicating with several media outlets of Serbia, the Basketball Federation of the country relayed the center of CSKA as fully healthy denying recent rumors of him being the latest questionable player for the official games approaching on the calendar. New captain Nemanja Bjelica recently picked up a thigh injury and was labeled as questionable for the next batch of 2023 FIBA World Cup Qualifiers in a couple of weeks and September’s 2022 EuroBasket, as confirmed by Pesic.
During the training camp, players the likes of Aleksa Avramovic and Alen Smailagic fell to respective injuries and former captain Milos Teodosic was ruled out by national team selector Svetislav Pesic. Moreover, the Miami Heat stopped Nikola Jovic and the Oklahoma City Thunder prevented Aleksej Pokusevski from participating in the World Cup Qualifiers and EuroBasket. In addition, Bogdan Bogdanovic of the Atlanta Hawks undergoing right knee surgery removed him from the list of players available.
After defeating Montenegro in a prep game last Saturday, Nikola Jokic and available international teammates traveled to Ljubljana to face Slovenia and Luka Doncic Wednesday. Another trip to Hamburg and a two-day four-team tournament follows next weekend before official games take over the schedule.
In Group D of EuroBasket’s preliminary round, the team coached by Pesic will collide with the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Finland, Israel, and Poland in Prague. The top four teams will move to Berlin for the knockout stage of the tournament.
In Group I of the FIBA World Cup European Qualifiers it will be a home game against Greece and a visit to Turkey on 25 and 28 August, respectively.
Photo Credit: FIBA.BASKETBALL