Cooks Ankle Injury "Probably Not Good"

When Xavier Cooks turned his ankle in the third quarter of Sydney’s Game 2 clash with Cairns, the whole of the Cairns Convention Centre, and Kings fans watching on TV waited to see if he would return to the floor with bated breath.

After heading down into the changerooms to get some work done on his ankle, Cooks emerged up the race but did not re-enter the game – and an ice pack was obviously protruding from beneath his sock as he sat on the bench to support his teammates.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">An injury update to the league MVP Xavier Cooks ?<br><br>Watch the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBLFinals?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBLFinals</a> Live &amp; free on ESPN via Kayo Freebies ? <a href="https://t.co/9vYnxY4BM8">pic.twitter.com/9vYnxY4BM8</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1626521021221318657?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 17, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Cairns’ DJ Hogg went on a tear in the aftermath of Cooks’ unfortunate injury, and finished the game with 24 points.

Sydney head coach Chase Buford says whether Cooks plays in Game 3 is yet to be determined.

“I have no idea … we’ll see [how it is].” Buford said post-game. “It’s probably not good for us.”

The final minutes of the fourth quarter descended into something resembling chaos. First came an accidental head clash resulting in a nose bleed for Kings forward Kouat Noi – after which Chase Buford was ejected from the game for arguing with officials.

Then centre Tim Soares made contact with Sam Waardenburg in the face off the ball – however expert commentators Liam Santamaria and Andrew Gaze perceived the contact to Waardenburg’s jaw to be accidental.

Kings guard Shaun Bruce says emotion is part and parcel of the Playoff experience.

“There’s spice in every game,” he said. “That’s just part of playing and that’s the fun of it.

“We’ve got two good teams that are playing their [butts] off. It’s the time of year we want to be playing and there’s going to be emotions.

“People care, coaches care a lot. It’s what it’s all about.

“We would have loved to get it done tonight but we earned the right to host two games this series, and we’re looking forward to getting there (Qudos Bank Arena) on Sunday.”

Game 3 of the Playoff Series between Sydney and Cairns tips off at 2pm AEDT on Sunday, live & free on ESPN via Kayo Freebies.