By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Turk Telekom Ankara suffered a defeat in the 7DAYS EuroCup final against Gran Canaria, and on the day of the final, a bizarre incident occurred, leading to the Turkish team’s head coach Erdem Can’s injury.
The EuroCup’s coach of the season hurt his head and neck on the windshield of the team bus while getting to the arena for training before the decisive game, as a result of the bus driver pushing the breaks suddenly, and led his team with a protective collar through the final match.
EuroLeague Head Coaches Board shared their support for the Turkish coach and condemned the actions of the bus driver, whose services weren’t provided by Gran Canaria or EuroCup, as it was booked by Turk Telekom directly.
“The EuroLeague Head Coaches Board is surprised and shocked by the totally unprofessional behavior of the bus driver that had, as a result, the injury of our member Erdem Can on the way to the arena for the last practice before the EuroCup Final in Gran Canaria.
Our information is not only that the bus driver used a much longer route, spending valuable time for the time preparation before the biggest game of the season, but when coach Can after asking him repeatedly to lower the excessive volume of the music and then the coach tried to do it himself, the driver pushed the breaks on purpose, and coach Can end up being injured by hitting his head on the windscreen. From the impact of that, the windscreen was broken.
We trust the Spanish traffic authorities to get to the bottom of this sad incident since decisions made by the bus drivers should ALWAYS be focused on the overall safety of all passengers.
We hope that this kind of incident will not happen again in Basketball and in all sports community in general,” the official announcement of the EuroLeague Head Coaches Board states.
The medical update
Turk Telekom Ankara also issues an official medical update, which is the following: “As a result of the MRI, severe acute edema development and a fissure (undifferentiated fracture) were detected in the fifth and sixth cervical vertebrae due to the trauma.
Although the need for emergency surgery has not been considered at the moment, since the fracture has not been separated, a new MRI will be performed after one month of use of the neck collar, and if there is no radiological improvement or any clinical worsening, emergency neck surgery may be required”.