Ashley Hamilton and Robert Gilchrist have been called into Great Britain’s squad for this week’s EuroBasket pre-qualifiers.
They replace Glasgow Rocks’ Gareth Murray, out with a broken nose, and Bakken Bears’ Ryan Martin, who had been in line for his debut before injury.
It means a recall for Gilchrist, who was left out of the original 12-man squad, while Hamilton will win his 17th cap and become London City Royals first-ever GB internationalist.
With Ogo Adegboye out for the season following patella surgery last week and Justin Robinson understood to have ruled himself out, it leaves Alberto Lorenzo’s men with a much-changed roster for Thursday’s clash with Cyprus in Manchester and Sunday’s return with Austria in Vienna, both of which the side must win to have any chance of advancing as group winners into the main qualifying round for EuroBasket 2021.
Lorenzo said: “Obviously it is never ideal to have to change players from our original squad, but we wish Gareth and Ryan all the best in their recovery. Ogo’s injury was really unfortunate as well and the whole team wishes him well during his rehab.
“We’re looking forward to what should be a great three days of camp and Robert and Ashley coming in will no doubt build on that. We’re going to be ready for Cyprus and Austria and our goals haven’t changed in that regard.”
Meanwhile British Basketball has been criticised for banning any filming of the Cyprus game, even though the contest is not being shown on TV.
The international will only be screened on FIBA’s YouTube channel as part of the default deal for the competition but the world governing body did not raise any objections to others creating their own footage, effectively prohibiting the BBC or websites from collecting high-quality footage.
In a statement posted late on Monday evening via social media, British Basketball said: “Following a period of review, GB Basketball has taken the decision not to allow independent filming during any of our home games for the foreseeable future.”
Main photo: Mansoor Ahmed
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