BRA – No serious knee injury for Nene

DENVER (2010 FIBA World Championship) - Brazil and Denver fans will be breathing a sigh of relief that Nuggets big man Nene didn't suffer a serious knee injury in Wednesday night’s game against Utah.

An MRI has indicated that the 6ft 11in center hyperextended his left knee in Denver’s 116-102 home triumph and did not have ligament or meniscus damage as he’d feared.

“I'm happy that it’s not a serious an injury, but I know I need to focus on my recovery so that other problems will not happen,” Nene said in a statement on the Brazilian Basketball Confederation website.

“I will start treatment tomorrow (Friday) in order to be able to return to action as soon as possible, but I know it depends on the medical evaluations to know when I will return to playing.”

Brazil are counting on Nene to play for the country when they go up against the United States, Slovenia, Croatia, Iran and Tunisia in Group B of the FIBA World Championship this year.

National team coach Ruben Magnano will be monitoring Nene’s recovery from afar, just as Brazil’s team doctor Carlos Vicente Andreoli.

“The absence of a ligament rupture or meniscus injury leads us to believe that there was a severe sprain,” Andreoli said.

“The treatment will be conservative (no surgery). Now it’s time to monitor the recovery of the athlete.”

Nene will not play on Friday night in Salt Lake City, a contest the Nuggets must win to force a Game 7 in their Western Conference first-round play-off series with the Jazz.

Johan Petro, the 24-year-old back-up center from France, is expected to replace Nene in the starting line-up.

FIBA