TORONTO (Olympic Qualifying Tournament) - Exactly a year ago today, Linas Kleiza suffered the most devastating blow of his career when he underwent knee surgery that forced him out of action for 11 months.

It was all the more tragic as it came after Kleiza led Lithuania to an impressive bronze medal at the 2010 FIBA World Championship in Turkey and was looking forward to helping his country carry that momentum into EuroBasket on its home turf.

Instead, the star forward went under the knife because of a meniscal tear and chondral defect of his right knee. He went on to miss the second half of the 2010-2011 NBA season and watched from the sidelines as F.Y.R. of Macedonia stunned Lithuania by knocking them out at the Quarter-Final stage last summer.

Kleiza made his much-awaited return in mid-January and looks forward to helping Lithuania battle at the Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) and extend their streak of appearances at the Olympics going this summer.

He took time out to talk to fiba.com.

FIBA: Linas, it's good to see you back on the court. Where do you feel you are in your recovery?

Kleiza: I feel about 70 percent. I'm still getting there. The schedule makes it very tough - no practice time, a lot of games. You have to pick up everything on the fly. It's tough especially when you're trying to still rehab and do a lot of work.

FIBA: Can you explain the feeling that you had this time last year?

Kleiza: It was a tough time. You know when you do something like that, it might be career-ending. I missed the second part of the season and the biggest sporting event in my country basketball-wise (EuroBasket 2011) so it was tough. But I had to do it for my future. I still have a lot of basketball left in me.

FIBA: At EuroBasket, were you with the team all the time?

Kleiza: Yes I was trying to be involved as much as I could. But at the end of the day you're an outsider looking in.

FIBA: How did you see Lithuania's fifth-place finish?

Kleiza: It definitely was not a bad result, but everybody was upset with the way we lost to F.Y.R. of Macedonia. But at the end of the day it was a good tournament and made a lot of people happy and now we still have a chance to qualify for the Olympics.

FIBA: What are your thoughts on the draw for the OQT?

Kleiza: We got Venezuela and Nigeria. It's definitely going to be tough but we have to go out there and play. We're going in trying to get a berth for the Olympics, no question about it. Since we became independent (in 1992), we've been to the Olympics every time. If we don't do it, it will be very upsetting and unsuccessful.

FIBA: Are you confident that this Lithuania team can achieve big things?

Kleiza: We're pretty good, we've got a couple of good young players. We just have to come together. It's going to be difficult and challenging not knowing when the season ends for a lot of players and what kind of team we're going to have. It's going to be a challenge.

FIBA: One of those good young players is Jonas Valanciunas. Were you impressed by his play at EuroBasket?

Kleiza: It was his first year with the men's senior national team and it was good for him to get that one under his belt. He has a lot of talent and he's a true centre. He's going to be a force for years to come for our team. We always have had good big guys and that's one of our keys. Every year, you look at it and we have good centres and forwards. So he and Donatas Motiejunas are going to be the future.

FIBA: What can Lithuania fans look forward to from you this summer?

Kleiza: We're going to try to get the best possible team we can. We're known for our chemistry and playing together and winning together. We have a strong team, not unbelievable individual players. Lithuania when we come, we play as a team. When we have 12 guys playing hard, we're pretty successful.

FIBA: What about you personally? Do you see your role changing from what it was in 2010?

Kleiza: I'm not worried about it. Every time you go in, stuff takes care of itself - who's going to be the guy, how we're going to play. I think my role will stay the same, no doubt about it. We need to get back to the way we played in Turkey - play fast, play aggressive and play together.

FIBA: History seems to be on your side when it comes to the Olympics...

Kleiza: In the last five Olympics, we came third three times and fourth two times. I was on the Beijing team that came in fourth and it was very heartbreaking. We had a great tournament but we lost to Spain in the Semi-Finals and then to Argentina (in the Bronze Medal Game). We expected bigger and better. It's going to be interesting.

FIBA