Ili concussion "mild": Vickerman

Thursday, January 11, 2024

Dean Vickerman says Shea Ili is in contention to return to Melbourne's lineup for next week's clash against Tasmania following a mild concussion.

Melbourne head coach Dean Vickerman has tempered worries around the severity of the concussion that will keep Shea Ili from the floor in United’s Friday night clash with New Zealand.

United announced Ili would miss their opening Round 15 clash alongside Jo Lual-Acuil Jr, who will be absent for personal reasons.

It's the latest in a string of concussions for the Tall Blacks star, who only played 14 games last season as he battled consistent head injury issues.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Delly & Dean spoke with the media folloing today's training session as the team prepare to head to NZ to take on the Breakers this Friday night. <br>Watch the full interviews here:<br>Delly - <a href="https://t.co/A31kJ8WVeX">https://t.co/A31kJ8WVeX</a><br>Dean - <a href="https://t.co/BXaLsYVtxG">https://t.co/BXaLsYVtxG</a> <a href="https://t.co/fzjOQsP8hc">pic.twitter.com/fzjOQsP8hc</a></p>— Melbourne United (@MelbUnited) <a href="https://twitter.com/MelbUnited/status/1744947176520774049?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 10, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

“Shea suffered a mild concussion in the game in Adelaide, he’s suffered mild symptoms and will be a fitness test against Tasmania, and Jo is out with personal reasons for this game,” Vickerman said.

There is some good news on the injury front for United though, as star forward Luke Travers is set to return to play following an ankle injury.

“Luke’s got two good practices of contact in and even more today that he was trusting his body. There’s still a little bit of soreness there but he’s tracking really well to go and play really good minutes in this one,” Vickerman said.

“He’s like a connector, he does everything really well – rebounds, pushes the pace … great passer, great finisher at the rim, he’s been knocking down the three ball and defensively he’s so versatile as a rim protector blocking shots or getting in passing lanes, ball pressure, things like that,” star guard Matthew Dellavedova added.

“’Shili’ and Jo are huge pieces of this team and we’re going to miss not having them out there, but all season when guys have missed game everyone has really stepped up.

"Flynn (Cameron) has played great in his minutes, ‘A’ (Ariel Hukporti) has really stepped up, ‘IC’ (Ian Clark) is having an amazing year. Everyone will be ready to go.”

Melbourne’s clash with New Zealand tips off on Friday at 5:30pm AEDT, live on ESPN via Kayo | Sky Sport in NZ.