Canadian forward Kelly Olynyk will likely only miss a week with bruising in his knee and is expected to be available for Canada Basketball at the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup starting at the end of the month, Sportsnet’s Michael Grange reported Thursday.
Olynyk slipped on a wet spot on the court and crashed to the floor hard early in the third quarter of Canada’s 96-87 exhibition victory over Nigeria in Toronto on Wednesday night. He limped off the floor and went to the locker room after the fall.
After the game, Team Canada head coach Nick Nurse indicated that it might be a knee injury.
Though an injury of any sort is never good news, it’s encouraging to hear that Olynyk will likely still be available for Canada in China as he’s one of the team’s best players, and even before he got injured still managed to stuff the stat sheet in, essentially, just one half of play, finishing Wednesday’s contest with 11 points, three assists, three rebounds, two steals and one block.
Meanwhile, it appears more and more likely that NBA big man Chris Boucher won’t participate with Canada at the World Cup, Grange also reported Thursday.
Boucher was in street clothes during Wednesday night’s contest, while veteran Canadian big Owen Klassen dressed, even though he wasn’t on the final list of 19 players that Canada Basketball announced Monday.
A full participant during the first two days of camp, it’s unclear why Boucher looks to be dropping out of the World Cup.
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