FRA - Parker bitterly disappointed to miss out FIBA World Championship

SENDAI (FIBA World Championship) - Tony Parker expressed his huge disappointment on Friday night after being forced to pull out of the FIBA World Championship because of a broken finger.

The playmaker, who sustained the injury in France's last friendly against Brazil, revealed to fiba.com in his first interview since withdrawing that he acted after being advised by the national team and the San Antonio Spurs.

"It really is very disappointing and tough to swallow because I felt in great shape before I got hurt against Brazil," said Parker.

"I had been looking forward to playing for France and I felt we had a great team which had the potential to do great things here.

"I want to play, but I can't play. It's that simple really. If it were up to me I would play. But it's not that easy.

"Obviously I have to consider how my team-mates and my coaches on the national team would feel about it. If I play hurt, I may not be helping my team so I can't be selfish and decide I want to play just for myself.

"And of course, I also have to consider what the San Antonio Spurs staff would say about it if I decided to go ahead and play. If I aggravated the injury I could be out for up to three months. I don't think that would be a good idea."

The 24-year-old explained how the freak accident happened.

"I got my finger caught in the jersey of one of the Brazilian players and I thought I heard a pop sound. So immediately I thought I had broken something in my finger. But the doctor looked at it and said it was still straight so it was probably just a sprain."

"But overnight it really started hurting pretty badly so on Thursday I told the doctors we should get an X-ray done just to check. The X-ray showed there was a broken bone and we tried to build a cast that would allow me to play but it was just too painful."

"I can't hold the ball. It's my index finger on my shooting hand so obviously that's the one finger you can't really hurt and still hope to be able to shoot.

"Obviously it is a big blow to me and to the French team. But these things happen and I must get past it.

"There is more at stake here than just the World Championship. The goal is the Olympics in 2008. So the best thing I can do is to recover and support the team throughout this competition."

Parker was in contact with his agents and with the Spurs' staff in San Antonio.

"At the end of the day, the Spurs make the decision. They're the bosses. So I will go back to San Antonio, get checked by the medical staff and go from there."

Parker does expect to be fit for the Spurs' trip to France in early October when they will hold part of their training camp in Paris.

"I have been told that I need to give it a month to heal. So I should be ready by then. I would like to come back to Japan around the time of the quarter-finals to support my team-mates.

"Nothing is definite yet, but we'll see how it goes. I may not come back but I will still support them throughout the competition."

By Simon Wilkinson
Exclusively for FIBA