Jamie Malonzo will miss Gilas Pilipinas’ FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) campaign as he continues to recover from a calf injury.
Head coach Tim Cone said that the 27-year-old underwent calf-achilles surgery just this Friday and will be sidelined for months.
This means he will not be available for the July 2-7 competitions to be held in Riga, Latvia.
“He’ll have to miss the OQT,” he told Tiebreaker Times shortly after Barangay Ginebra’s 99-77 win over Magnolia to book the first ticket to the PBA Season 48 Philippine Cup semifinals, Saturday night at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum.
Malonzo has been out of action since going down in the final seconds of their 95-88 victory over NorthPort back in the eliminations last April 14.
His left leg gave way with only 5.3 seconds remaining in the game when he tried to take off for a dunk to end the contest. The team rushed to his aid before carrying the athletic 6-foot-6 winger on the way to the locker room.
Now, given the recent development, the Kings and the men’s national team will have to tread on with their respective journeys without him for a while.
If anything, Cone said that the surgery was a success, according to the doctors, although there remains no definite timeline yet for his return.
“His timeline is gonna be months, not weeks. We’ll see how it works out,” he said. “We were told that the surgery was successful. We won’t know more until he’s able to do some rehab and the swelling goes down and all that stuff.
“But right now, the doctors are telling us it’s gonna be measured in months, not weeks. We’re preparing to be without him for a while.”
But while Gilas will miss him for the OQT, Cone said that the team expects him to be in action again come Window 2 of the FIBA Asia Cup 2025 Qualifiers.
“We expect him back in November for the window,” he said.
