The Lithuanian is about to recover two of his injuries, both outside and he goes down due to two blows to the head
Abrines could be in the game this Friday, while Kuric will return next week
Not enough for some Barça is showing a tenuous ascending line in this first part of a season in which they already recovered the Catalan League and lost the final of the Spanish Super Cup against Real Madrid for the second consecutive season.
In addition to that aforementioned KO against the whites, the azulgrana team has lost another three games. He fell in his debut in the Euroleague at the Palau by 70-80 against an intractable Olympiacos that has also already desecrated the courts of Madrid and Baskonia, last Thursday in Kaunas against Zalgiris (73-73) and on the opening day of an Endesa League (now is the leader) in the visit to Gran Canaria by 88-85 in the weakest match of all.
Namely, four losses and seven wins in official matches that would rise to nine if the Catalan tournament is counted. However, the cold analysis of the numbers would be markedly unfair for several reasons. The first, that Saras has a very new squad with six casualties (Calathes, Oriola, Rolands Smits, Brandon Davies, Hayes and Exum) and as many new faces (Satoransky, Oriol Paulí, Vesely, Oscar da Silva, Kalinic and Mike Tobey ).
The other and more important is the absence of the great reference of the team, a Nikola Mirotic that has been key for the Lithuanian as it was with Pesic on the bench and that has left the team orphaned of the many virtues he brings. Without the Hispano-Montenegrin, Saras has had to redo moves, change roles and all this in a scenario of changing ‘brain’ with ‘Sato’ instead of Calathes.
The absence ‘Niko’ has also joined that of a Sergi Martínez who underwent surgery to fix an injury to the patellar tendon in his right knee and is expected around the Copa del Rey in February. In addition, two other players were also absent on Sunday, both due to head injuries: Àlex Abrines and Kyle Kuric. With both the news from the infirmary is good.
April, Friday
The excellent start to the season that Àlex Abrines is starring in has been slowed down by the heavy blow to the head he received last week at the Zalgirio Arena.
The Balearic suffered a head injury that prevented him from participating in the aforementioned duel against those of Txus Vidorreta as a precaution and because of the protocols for this type of injury. In fact, yesterday he worked on the track without apparent problems and could return today with the group in order to be discharged on Friday against AX Armani Milano led by veteran Ettore Messina. Her return will also alleviate the problems with the ‘quotas’ in the League.
To date the azulgrana presents a sensational 50% success rate in triples in the four days of the Euroleague (6/12) and 45.5% in the Endesa League with 10/22 (last season it finished with 56.1%).
Kuric, almost ready
The case of the American with a Slovakian passport he is different because of his previous serious problems in the head. Kyle Kuric has been out since the head injury he suffered on October 2 at the Palau in the 89-74 victory against Baskonia in which he scored six points. Therefore, he has already missed seven games (the four days of the Euroleague and three of the Endesa League).
The blaugrana ‘killer’ is already doing exercises on the track and absolutely all the tests carried out have been favorable, so it could be high next week if there are no setbacks.
The medical services of the club do not want to run the slightest risk in a patient at risk. Kuric had a meningioma (brain tumor) removed on November 5, 2015 when he was a member of Gran Canaria and two days later he was operated on again to control the cerebral edema that occurred.
That nightmare that he overcame and that has made him an example of improvement in every way reared its head again two years ago on September 7, 2020 when he suffered a blow to the head that displaced a small plate that he has had on his head since that referred process of 2015.
Although the club insists on having patience to avoid scares, it seems very possible that Kuric has serious options to be in the game in the only game next week, in the Euroleague at the Maccabi court. The Endesa League stops through the ‘windows’.