ANTIPOLO — Rondae Hollis-Jefferson is set to undergo surgery soon to repair the torn Achilles tendon he suffered during Meralco’s EASL outing last Saturday.
The three-time PBA Best Import already left for the States a day after sustaining the said injury to focus on recovery, according to head coach Luigi Trillo.
“Agad na ‘yun,” said the veteran mentor.
The former NBA veteran never returned to the match and left with 15 points, four rebounds, seven assists, and a block in 19 minutes of play.
Meralco improved to 3-2 in Group B of the home-and-away meet, but that came at a cost, as ‘RHJ’ will be out for a significant amount of time to recover.
Trillo himself lamented Hollis-Jefferson’s lengthy absence ahead, as well as the abruptly cut partnership between him and Justin Brownlee.
(C) EASL
Brownlee actually made his Bolts debut in that same game and went on to finish with 12 points, 10 rebounds, and six assists in 37 minutes of action.
“Justin and Rondae, ito ‘yung inaabangan din ng mga tao,” he said.
“Rondae’s been a class act. You don’t wanna see a good guy like that come down.”
Trillo, though, is optimistic that Hollis-Jefferson could be back earlier than expected, reaffirming as well the Bolts’ support for the 30-year-old.
“We believe in him. I think he’ll be back in less than a year. We will be there for him–Meralco will be there for him,” the champion bench tactician said.
Asked if there will be a replacement, Trillo did not mention any name but disclosed that the team is trying to bring one in by January.
“We have some names, we’ve sent them to our management. We’ll probably have him in here, maybe during the third week of January,” he said.
“But there are certain names. We’ll have to find someone.”
Also expected to look for a new import for the next conferences is TNT, now that its resident reinforcement could be out for the rest of Season 50.
