ARG – Nocioni out of the 2010 FIBA World Champ due to left ankle injury

KAYSERI (2010 FIBA World Championship) – Argentinian National Team forward Andres Nocioni will miss the 2010 FIBA World Championship due to a left ankle sprain suffered in the last stage of practices prior to the tournament.

A very affected Nocioni, who will play next season in the NBA for the Philadelphia 76ers, gave the announcement in a press conference held at the Kayseri Hilton.

“It is with a lot of pain in my soul that I have to announce that I won’t play in the FIBA World Championship,” said a teary Nocioni.

“The Philadelphia 76ers exercised an option in my contract that when I get injured during national team activities they can prevent me from playing,” he added.

At the end of July, Nocioni suffered a left ankle sprain during a practice and he started a rehabilitation process under Dr. Diego Grippo and he returned to action at the Efes Pilsen World Cup in Ankara where he played two of the three games, missing the last one against Turkey.

“I told everyone that I was playing 100% in the FIBA World Championship and the team (76ers) and the doctors advised me to not play because of the risks. A second MRI was made where damage was shown and I will have to be without doing any physical work for 4-5 weeks,” said the forward.

The last time Nocioni played for the Argentinian National Team in an official competition was at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing where he and his team won the Bronze medal.

“It is sad because this was going to be my last FIBA World Championship playing at a high level. It broke my dream of playing here for my country.”

Now the head coach of the Argentinean team, Sergio Hernandez, will have to make the tough decision to call another player and some of the candidates include Marcos Mata (Peñarol Mar del Plata) and Matias Sandes (Fuenlabrada). The decision will be announced in a couple of hours.

“We all know what Andres Nocioni means to us in our game. I thank him for his hard work during the practices and rehabilitation. It was impressive and gave us motivation to see him work with us despite the injury,” said Hernandez.

FIBA