ESP – Llull sidelined for up to 40 days with injury

MADRID (2010 FIBA World Championship) - Spain international Sergio Llull has a broken bone in his left foot and will need between 30 and 40 days to recover.
 
The Real Madrid star hurt his foot during the ACB post-season and had to sit out of his team's 62-60 defeat to Caja Laboral in Game 1 of their semi-final tie before returning to the line-up and playing the next four games.
 
Real Madrid have announced in a statement: "After the tests done on the player Sergio Llull following a knock he suffered in the navicular scaphoid of his left foot, tests have confirmed the existence of a fracture in that scaphoid. The expected time of recovery is 30-40 days."
 
The injury means that Llull may not be able to go at full speed when Spain's players gather to prepare for the FIBA World Championship in Turkey.
 
Llull made his debut for Spain's senior team last summer and played at the EuroBasket in Poland.
 
A vital contributor off the bench, Llull averaged almost 12 minutes in nine games and hit four of his nine (44.4%) shots from three-point range.
 
Sergio Scariolo, the Spain coach, has a lot of confidence in the 22-year-old, something he showed in the waning seconds against Turkey in the Qualifying Round when he decided to put the ball in Llull's hands with the world champions trailing Turkey by one point.
 
Llull exploded to the basket and went up for a dunk but had his shot blocked by Ersan Ilyasova of Turkey.
 
Spain lost the game but then won their next five to clinch the gold medal.
 
Scariolo’s men will go up against New Zealand, Lebanon, Canada, France and Lithuania in Group D of the FIBA World Championship.
 
Those Preliminary Round games will be played in Izmir.
 
FIBA