SRB - Injury concerns for Serbia U19 squad in Novi Sad

NOVI SAD (FIBA U19 World Championship) - Serbian head coach Miroslav Nikolic is facing a selection headache ahead of the FIBA Under-19 World Championship which tips off in Novi Sad on Thursday.

Nikolic is sweating on the fitness of a key trio ahead of the tournament, and admits his side’s chances will be severely hampered should they fail to recover in time.

"Stefan Markovic, Milan Macvan and Marko Keselj are injured and that's really bad news," he said.

"It's really a pity to face such problems at the very end of our preparation period for World Championship.

"We'll see what happens before tournament starts. I don't know what to say except those guys will have to hold tight as we need all of them.

"Without them, it will be hard to survive the preliminary round.

"The injured trio are undergoing special treatment from our medical staff, and all of us hope they'll be ready as soon as possible."

Along with Markovic, Macvan and Keselj, there are 10 other players vying to be included in the hosts’ final 12-man squad.

They are Krsto Bjelica, Slaven Cupkovic, Petar Despotovic, Mladen Jeremic, Boban Marjanovic, Bojan Radetic, Miroslav Raduljica, Aleksandar Radulovic, Stefan Stojacic and Marko Cakarevic.

Nikolic reckons his troops would have been serious contenders - if he had a fully-fit squad at his disposal.

"If we didn't have such problems, we would have been one of favourites for a medal," he said. "But now it will be tough to achieve that.

"Still, we'll do our best to show our standard of basketball. We are in for a quality and interesting tournament, that's for sure."

Nikolic, who is also the coach of Serbian play-off semi-finalists Hemofarm, has reduced the number of training sessions to one per day, along with another daily meeting with his team for tactical analysis of themselves and opponents.

"Like others, we've also faced a problem of scouting our rivals," he said. "But we'll prepare ourselves as the competition goes on.

"Our first match, against China, will be a crucial one. I'm sure we'll face Chinese zone defense, something that we must prepare for very well.

"Despite all the problems we've faced, I must say that all our guys have worked really hard, and that this generation definitely has quality."

Serbia will face China, Mali and the United States in the preliminary phase of the competition.

Darko Nikolic
FIBA