By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
Olympiacos coach David Blatt said that the team isn’t expecting guard Janis Strelnieks to return to the team “anytime soon.”
‘Unfortunately, we got some bad news about Strelnieks yesterday. He will remain out for the foreseeable future. He won’t be back anytime soon. Unfortunately,” Blatt said in the pre-game presser ahead of EuroLeague’s Round 30 critical match of the “Reds” vs. Darussafaka Tekfen.
Strelnieks had suffered a muscle injury on his left leg during the World Cup Qualifiers game of the Latvian national team against Montenegro. The original estimation was that the player’s recovery will take about a month but it seems he will remain out for much longer.
In 20 EuroLeague games, Strelnieks had averaged 8.8 points, 2.0 assists and 1.9 rebounds over 20:46 minutes.
Olympiacos is also missing captain Vassilis Spanoulis who’s been ruled out for the season after undergoing surgery for a peroneal tendon rupture.
“Those are things we got to deal with. That’s part of the difficulties the team is going through. But we’re doing our best to deal with it,” Blatt added, also in regards to an ankle injury that Dimitris Agravanis had sustained. The Greek forward is expected to be ready for the game against Dacka.
Olympiacos needs a win over Dacka to clinch a playoffs spot plus a combination of results in the games of Anadolu Efes vs. Olimpia Milano, Panathinaikos vs. Buducnost, Real Madrid vs. Zalgiris Kaunas, and CSKA Moscow vs. Baskonia. You can check all the scenarios here.