Gilas’ health issues not a concern for Baldwin

Gilas Pilipinas head coach Tab Baldwin gathers his team before wrapping up Monday night’s practice at Moro Lorenzo Sports Center in Ateneo. Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

Jayson Castro, Paul Lee and Terrence Romeo, three of the Philippine team’s most prolific guards, sat out the latest national team pool practice due to injuries.

Castro aggravated his Achilles injury and Romeo hurt his right calf over the weekend while Lee has yet to return after re-injuring his left knee two months ago.

Gilas Pilipinas is ailing four months away from the Olympic qualifying tournament but head coach Tab Baldwin isn’t too concerned about his team’s health at this point in time.

“It was okay. Just a little thin on bodies. Too many injured guys, but as I just said to the other gang over there, we’re gonna have to live with that. It’s gonna happen,” Baldwin told reporters. “It’s the middle of the PBA season and guys are gonna come out of games banged up a little bit sometimes and funny thing is you’ll see them play in the next game. That’s just the nature of the beast.”

“I had a talk with them all. Everybody clearly understands what the story is. They’re gonna play, they’re gonna practice if they’re healthy. They’re not gonna practice if they’re not healthy, end of story,” added Baldwin.

Ginebra’s Greg Slaughter and Japeth Aguilar, San Miguel Beer’s June Mar Fajardo and TNT’s Ryan Reyes also missed training due to minor health issues.

Facing tough competition for an Olympic berth, Gilas can’t afford not to be in full strength in July.

Baldwin understands injuries are part of the game and as a coach, he knows the only thing he could do is hope for the best while also preparing for the worst.

“Nobody is going to guard against injuries for Gilas and I told guys when they’re participating with Gilas we’re not going guard against injuries for a PBA team. You cant do that in a sport. You cannot protect yourself. If you do that, then you’re not an elite player. These are elite players. They’re gonna play at an elite level, when you play at an elite level, when you practice at an elite level, you’re exposed to injuries and other risks. that’s the way it is,” Baldwin said.

“Injuries are fickle. If you said to me today, ‘Will you have your top 12 when you want thm come game time against France?’ I’d say no, we’ll probably have one or two that are our with injures that we can’t get our hands on. That’s just the nature of it and you’ll live with that.”

Baldwin is confident Gilas’ health issues will be resolved in time.

“It’s up to their teams to handle those and we have a lot of confidence in the PBA teams, the doctors. these guys have been through injuries over the years. It is within their level of expertise. we have very good doctors here in the Philippines. Sports doctors, guys that have been around basketball for a long time so these injures aren’t new to them. They’ve seen them, know how to treat them and that’s what you have to do.”