GRE - Big Sofo quits to rock Greece

ATHENS (EuroBasket) - Sofoklis Schortsanitis' international future is in doubt after he walked out of Greece's preparations for EuroBasket, dealing them another blow in an injury-hit summer.

The Maccabi Tel Aviv big man quit over personal reasons, reportedly an illness suffered by his girlfriend, but coach Elias Zouros confirmed he had not been given permission to go and will now face further action.

"I want to clarify that he did not wait for permission to go," said Zouros.

"He told us that he wanted to stop with the national team for personal reasons, which he did, despite the efforts of the technical staff and the team to keep him here."

The news overshadowed the return to camp of star guard Nick Calathes, who has been in the United State receiving treatment on his injured ankle.

He has not yet been cleared to play, but will be monitored closely over the next 10 days with the hope of fully integrating him back into the team.

Greece could also breathe a sigh of relief after Kostas Vassiliadis limped out of practice with a knee injury, only to get an all-clear on a scan. He is now expected to return to action shortly.

That goes against the grain in a summer in which Greece have already lost Vassilis Spanoulis, Dimitris Diamantidis, Theodoros Papaloukas, Konstantinos Tsartsaris, and Loukas Mavrokefalidis.

FIBA