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Kai Sotto out for Gilas Pilipinas in FIBA Asia Cup, says Cone


Gilas Pilipinas head coach Tim Cone on Wednesday said the injured Kai Sotto will be out for the country's FIBA Asia Cup campaign in August as he expects at least around nine months of recovery for the big man.

Cone answered in the affirmative when asked if Sotto will not play in the FIBA Asia Cup.

"For sure. Hopefully he'll be starting to play sometime in the World Cup qualifiers," Cone said.

"Big blow, but we'll see what we can do."

Sotto has been diagnosed with an ACL injury earlier this month while playing in the Japan B.League.

Cone added that he expects Sotto to undergo surgery in the first week of February and hopes for his fast recovery.

"I think what I heard last is that the surgery's going to be around the first of February, so sometime this week, probably, he might have the surgery. And then from there, we count the months. Minimum nine, probably twelve. A guy that's seven-foot-two usually takes longer [recovery], so we're thinking maybe a year. He'll be out for maybe a year," said the Gilas Pilipinas coach.

"We'll keep our eye on him, that's for sure because he's the key to this program, no doubt about it."

More than the injury, however, Cone said what's worse is that Sotto's NBA dreams encountered another bump.

"What hurts most is the fact that he's held back his NBA dream, and it looked like he was getting some real solid feelers from the NBA, right up until he got injured. So sayang, that's too bad. I feel really bad about that," Cone said.

The Philippines is already assured of a slot in the FIBA Asia Cup in Saudi Arabia this August, but will still play away games against Chinese Taipei and New Zealand in the upcoming February window of the Asia Cup qualifiers.

—GMA Integrated News