Landale injury to cause Boomers shake-up

The Australian Boomers have suffered a major blow ahead of the FIBA World Cup, with star centre Jock Landale expected to miss the tournament according to coach Brian Goorjian.

Landale turned his left ankle in Thursday night’s warm-up game against South Sudan, hobbling off the court in obvious pain. It is a separate injury to the right ankle issue that held him out of Monday and Wednesday’s exhibition clashes.

Speaking after the 88-67 win, Goorjian conceded he is preparing to not have Landale available for the World Cup, which begins next Friday.

“Telling the truth here, he's not getting on the plane with us,” Goorjian said post-game.

“He's going have an MRI. It didn't look great, so they're going to deal with that here. We're going to travel with the 12 we've got now and prepare.

“I'm of the mindset right now as if we don't have him.”

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Goorjian further revealed Dallas Maverick Josh Green will enter the starting line-up, with fellow NBA player Matisse Thybulle to come off the bench.

The coach praised Green’s defensive intensity, calling his on-ball pressure like “Delly on steroids”, a nod to Boomers veteran and noted dogged defender Matthew Dellavedova.

Jack White, who would have been the final cut ahead of the World Cup, will now be part of the team in Landale’s absence.

Goorjian explained how while White was going to travel to Tokyo regardless due to the now resolved concerns with Chris Goulding’s injury, the versatile forward will need to play a role.

“We planned on taking Jack regardless, still not seeing where Chris is at,” Goorjian said.

“Jack was told the situation, that he sits at No.13 and it’s Chris’ position. I said to him, ‘man, stay ready, just put everything (behind you)’.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The Boomers respond in a big way ?<br><br>Australia closes their pre-World Cup tournament in dominant fashion ?<br><br>Next up, Okinawa ?? <a href="https://t.co/pyFnh19jv7">pic.twitter.com/pyFnh19jv7</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1692139198919389644?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 17, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

“Jack White has been right on the cusp of this thing and has been huge for us, and there's a quality piece there. Thank goodness he's here, he's played in all of this, and that we went down the road that we went, and he's a very helpful piece.

“He's multi-purpose and, if we're going play that small ball and switch, he's another really important piece.”

Thybulle led all scorers against South Sudan with 17 points, while Duop Reath added 15 points and 6 rebounds.

Australia faces France in their final World Cup warm-up game on Sunday in Tokyo, before the campaign begins on Friday, August 25, against Finland.