Spain look likely to be without Minnesota Timberwolves guard Ricky Rubio for this summer’s Eurobasket.
The 24-year-old will undergo arthroscopic surgery on his left ankle early next week, and will be out for an undetermined amount of time, as reported by Yahoo! Sports.
Rubio has unfortunately been no stranger to injuries in his four-year NBA career, this ankle injury plus the torn left anterior cruciate ligament in his rookie year has limited Rubio to playing just 202 of a possible 309 games with the Timberwolves.
Rubio’s torn ACL in his rookie year forced him to miss the London 2012 Olympics, where Spain settled for silver, losing to the USA in the gold medal game.
But despite Rubio’s apparent absence, the 2009 and 2011 Eurobasket winners will still be able to field a strong squad for this year’s tournament, which for the first time is being held in four countries, Croatia, France, Germany and Latvia.
The finalists will be awarded a place at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, with an extra four sides competing for an extra three spots at the Olympic Qualifying Tournament a month before the Games begin.
It is unclear whether Spain’s NBA legion of Jose Calderon, Serge Ibaka plus Pau and Marc Gasol will feature for the national team, who are housed in a tough Group B alongside Germany, Serbia, Italy, Turkey and newcomers Iceland with the fixtures being played at Berlin’s O2 World Arena.