Hong Kong Eastern is hoping for the best after Chris McLaughlin went down with an apparent ankle injury in their eventual win over Terrafirma on Friday.
The guest team did clinch a ticket to the PBA Season 49 Commissioner’s Cup quarterfinals following the 134-110 victory over the also-ran team, but could hardly celebrate as much as they wanted after seeing their lead center get hurt.
“Chris’s injury [brings] some problems for us,” said head coach Mensur Bajramovic during the postgame presser at the Philsports Arena in Pasig. “We’ll see what the level of the injury is, tonight and tomorrow, with Chris.”
McLaughlin got injured at the 6:55-mark of the first quarter as he landed awkwardly following a missed dunk over Dyip big man Kemark Carino.
“It’s an ankle injury. He landed on the leg of the opponent when he wanted to dunk,” the Bosnian bench tactician recalled of the incident.
It took him a while to get back up and although he managed to walk back to the bench by himself, Eastern deemed it best not to put him back in.
He only played for a total of five minutes and four seconds, tallying two points, a rebound, an assist, and a steal each before the premature exit.
The team is looking to have McLaughlin undergo MRI scanning soon to check the severity of the injury before making any decision.
“We will see tonight how it is, and maybe tomorrow we will take an MRI to check what the real condition of it is,” Bajramovic said.
It sure is a tough predicament for Hong Kong to potentially miss their top center’s services for a while, considering that they have been juggling a schedule in which the team is concurrently competing in three leagues.
Aside from the PBA, HK is playing in the Hong Kong A1 Division and in the 2024-25 East Asia Super League home-and-away season.
If anything, the club still has Cameron Clark in its disposal but then again, the decision will depend mainly on the status of McLaughlin’s ankle.
“We will see first,” said the 59-year-old Bajramovic, visibly worried about his import. “And then we will make a decision, based on his injury.”
