Memphis Grizzlies’ Marc Gasol has reportedly withdrawn his name from the Spanish national team for the Rio Olympics, which starts on August 6.
A source close to the Spanish national team informed TalkBasket that Gasol pulled out over the weekend, just before the team flew out to Kaunas for their warm-up game with Lithuania. Vicente Aspirate, a former press officer for the FEB also confirmed the news.
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Gasol has not yet joined up with the national team as he continues to recover from a foot injury that he suffered while playing for the Grizzlies in February. He underwent successful surgery to repair the non-displaced Type II fracture of the navicular bone in his right foot and is still racing to get fit again.
He has not played international basketball since the FIBA World Cup in 2014. He decided to skip last year’s Eurobasket after just signing a new five-year deal with Memphis, worth $110million.
The 31-year-old Barcelona native was hoping to play some part at the Rio Games but only if his injury was 100 percent healed. Despite this though, Gasol is still included in coach Sergio Scariolo’s 12-man roster that will travel to Brazil.
The team at this time are Ricky Rubio, Jose Calderon, Sergio Rodríguez, Juan Carlos Navarro, Sergio Llull, Rudy Fernández, Fernando San Emeterio, Felipe Reyes, Nikola Mirotic, Víctor Claver, Marc Gasol and Pau Gasol, but reports from the Spanish camp are that the squad is not yet finalised.
Spain are still considered a main contender to the USA’s throne in Rio and will start in Group B where they face Lithuania, Croatia, Nigeria, Argentina and Brazil.
