Luka Doncic travelled with the Slovenian team to Japan as they prepare for the FIBA World Cup and was set to play against Spain and USA but his time was cut short due to injury.
During the second quarter against Spain, he copped and “unfavorable blow” while landing awkwardly on a drive and his team went on to lose the match 99-79.
Before coming from the court, Doncic scored 17 points but Slovenia struggled without him.
It was much of the same story against Team USA, who Slovenia lost 92-62 to in the exhibition game.
Doncic revealed that the injury is to the quad and the same one he sustained after the All-Star break last season.
But says there is nothing to worry about.
“It is an old injury, which caused me problems in March in the NBA,” Doncic told Sports Illustrated. “Therefore, we performed an MRI. Everything is okay. Nothing worse.”
Doncic is captaining the Slovenian team for the first time ever and spoke about the positives from the last two games but knows his side must improve ahead of the FIBA World Cup that begins on August 25.
“We saw a lot of good things in the last two games,” Doncic said. “But at the same time, it became clear that we still have a lot of work to do. When we are focused and doing what we need to do, we can be a very dangerous team.
“Simple, we have to follow the rules. This is already visible in certain areas. Now we have to get to the point where we will do this for 40 minutes.”
Slovenia will begin their world cup campaign on August 26 against Venezuela.
The team will be looking to build on their fourth placed finish from the Tokyo Olympics but to do that, a healthy Luka will be paramount.
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