An official diagnosis has yet to be formulated after Jayson Castro got hurt late in TNT’s PBA Governors’ Cup clash with rivals San Miguel, Wednesday night.
The 35-year-old was subbed out with 6:37 remaining in the game, moments after his right shoulder got tangled with opposing forward Vic Manuel during a box-out situation near the rim. He never returned to the game since.
Castro left with six points to his name, along with a rebound, an assist, and a steal each after going blank in the first half. A broadcast report, later on, said that the initial diagnosis thus far is a muscle contusion.
Luckily for the Tropang Giga, Mikey Williams had caught fire on offense and powered his side to the 96-81 victory that ended their two-game slide.
Still, it doesn’t lessen the team’s worry about Castro, who’s part of the Gilas Pilipinas pool for next week’s FIBA World Cup 2023 Asian Qualifiers.
“Wala pa. I’ll just find out now, when I go back to the dugout,” said head coach Chot Reyes moments after the win at SMART Araneta Coliseum.
This marks yet another injury woe for the Tropa, who’s already missing the services of Roger Pogoy due to calf issues. As difficult as it’s been, though, Reyes that it is exactly why they prepare their other players.
“With regards to the other injuries, that’s part of basketball,” he said. “And the reason why we prepare our other players so much so that they are ready to step forward in case of unfortunate situations like this.”
“Those are things that we need to always take into consideration, and it’s part of the game,” Reyes furthered.
And while they await word regarding Castro’s status, a silver lining to the situation, somehow, is the return of Poy Erram from injury.
It could be remembered that the 6-foot-8 center at out Sunday’s match against Phoenix Super LPG after hurting his back versus Magnolia last Friday.
Against the Beermen, Erram played for 13 minutes and 15 seconds. He tallied four points, a rebound, and an assist as well.
Reyes lauded the ‘superhuman effort’ displayed by the vastly-improved big man for managing to play through his condition, which should bode well for Gilas as he’s among the 12 TNT players named to the 21-man pool.
“Superhuman effort by Poy,” said the five-time Coach of the Year. “The initial prognosis of the doctor was he’d be out for one week, so we thought he wouldn’t play anymore these last two games.
“But he felt a lot better yesterday, good enough to practice, so he tried it in practice lightly, and he gave us some really good minutes today.”
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