Songaila out of Olympics

Lithuania will miss one more key player in Beijing. Darius Songaila will not be playing in Olympics Games. It would have been already 3rd Olympics for the 30-year-old power forward. Songaila felt the pain in his back during tournament in Spain. After the medical testing spine hernia was suspected.

Songaila travelled to United States while Lithuania flew to Macao. Washington Wizards medical staff made more test and the final decision was that Songaila will have to miss Olympics. Doctors advised him to rest for a couple of weeks.

The loss of Songaila opened the door for Lietuvos Rytas point guard Marius Prekevicius who was picked as 13th player. Darius Songaila is the third key player out for Lithuania. The other two are Olympiacos shooting guard Arvydas Macijauskas and Cleveland Cavaliers veteran center Zydrunas Ilgauskas.

Lithuania will face USA in Macao tomorrow. American defeated Turkey 114:82 today.

The final squad for Lithuania:

Sarunas Jasikevicius (Panathinaikos)
Rimantas Kaukenas (Montepaschi Siena)
Ramunas Siskauskas (CSKA Moscow)
Ksystof Lavrinovic (Montepaschi Siena)
Robertas Javtokas (Dynamo Moscow)
Mindaugas Lukauskis (Lietuvos rytas)
Linas Kleiza (Denver Nuggets)
Darjus Lavrinovic (Dynamo Moscow)
Marijonas Petravicius (Lietuvos rytas)
Jonas Maciulis (Zalgiris)
Simas Jasaitis (DKV Joventut)
Marius Prekevicius (Lietuvos rytas)