ESP – Raul Lopez back for Spain as Calderon exits squad with injury

MADRID (2010 FIBA World Championship) - Spain lost more than their friendly to the United States on Sunday in Madrid.

National team coach Sergio Scariolo also said goodbye to his starting point guard, Jose Manuel Calderon, for the FIBA World Championship after the Toronto Raptors playmaker picked up a muscle injury in his left leg in the 86-85 defeat.

Calderon, who was prevented from taking part in EuroBasket 2009 in Poland because of injuries, has been replaced by Raul Lopez - a vital member of last year’s gold-medal winning side in Katowice.

The injury will sideline Calderon for up to four weeks.

Spain's first game is on Saturday against France.

"I want to wish the best of luck for my teammates in Turkey," Calderon said.

"I am certain they will do a great job.

"When something like this happens, there's not much to say, only lament the bad luck that I've had to get injured in the last friendly game.

"I hope the team does the best possible at the World Championship and they will have another fan in me."

Calderon was the starting guard in the Spain side that captured the gold medal in Japan and he was also a member of the all-tournament team at EuroBasket 2007 in Madrid when his team hosted the event and finished runners-up to Russia.

At the Olympics in China, he started but got hurt in the Quarter-Finals against Croatia and had to miss out on the rest of the tournament, with Spain ultimately falling to the Americans in the gold-medal game.

Lopez, who has had to overcome serious knee injuries in his career, has left his pre-season training with Khimki to join the Spaniards.

"I am surprised because I could not watch the game last night and I didn't know what had happened until this morning," Lopez said.

"I have mixed feelings because you don't want to go into the team after another teammate has injured himself, but I am very happy to be able to play at the World championship with this group of players.

"Last year, I already had the luck to be a part of this group.

"Now I need to adapt as fast as possible to the team."

Calderon's absence is almost certain to mean that Spain will have an all-Barcelona starting backcourt with Ricky Rubio now the undisputed number one point guard alongside shooting guard Juan Carlos Navarro.

Scariolo is Lopez’s coach at Khimki, though, and will no doubt give a lot of minutes to the guard as Spain try to defend their world title.

FIBA