Romwel Anzures

Gilas Pilipinas big man Kai Sotto in action against New Zealand in the November 2024 window of the 2025 FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers. Photo by Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News/file

Gilas Pilipinas battles with New Zealand in the  FIBA Asia Cup 2025 Qualifiers in Pasay City on November 21, 2024. Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News

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FIBA Asia Cup 2025 Qualifiers

ABS-CBN News

<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/173816586482620241121-fiba-gilas-newzealand-MQD_0391-MD.jpeg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Gilas Pilipinas big man Kai Sotto in action against New Zealand in the November 2024 window of the 2025 FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers. Photo by Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News/file"/>Gilas Pilipinas big man Kai Sotto in action against New Zealand in the November 2024 window of the 2025 FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers. Photo by Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News/fileMANILA — Kai Sotto is expected to undergo surgery for his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear on his left knee in February.</div>The 7-foot-3, Gilas Pilipinas young star sustained the setback during a Japan B.League game last January wherein he fell on his knees early in the clash between the Koshigaya Alphas and the Seahorses Mikawa.Since then, Sotto himself announced and confirmed the extent of the injury, which will cause him to miss the rest of the national team&#x27;s FIBA Asia Cup assignments in 2025.Gilas head coach Tim Cone shared on Wednesday that his prized big will be getting surgery on his knee on February 1, and this will be the start of the long road to recovery for the Las Piñas native.“I think what I heard last is that he&#x27;s gonna be, the surgery&#x27;s gonna be around the 1st of February,” Cone told a few reporters.“So sometime this week, probably, he might have the surgery, and then from there, we count the months. Minimum nine, probably 12. A guy that&#x27;s 7&#x27;3 usually takes longer, so we&#x27;re thinking maybe a year. He&#x27;ll be out for maybe a year,” the Barangay Ginebra head coach added.Despite this unfortunate event in Kai&#x27;s career, however, Coach Tim is confident that the youthful center will be return stronger than ever“He&#x27;s young, 22. At that age, he can easily recover from that. For the medical profession, it&#x27;s really amazing these days what they can do,” said Cone.“I can always say this about injuries, and it&#x27;s almost cruel to say it, but this has always been the philosophy, I think the coaching philosophy: You feel bad about injuries for 10 minutes, then you move on.”“Because there&#x27;s nothing you can do about it. Just move on. Now you gotta figure out how we&#x27;re gonna deal with that void on the team and how you&#x27;re gonna make it.&quot;You feel crushed for 10 minutes, but time to move on. That&#x27;s what we gotta do as a team, move on.&quot;Still, Cone acknowledged that this may hurt Gilas’ program as a whole, and mainly, Kai’s career at present especially with the impressive run that he has been showing in the past few months.“No doubt about it, Kai&#x27;s the key to this program, but what hurts most is the fact that he&#x27;s held back his NBA dream,” he said. “It looked like he was getting some real solid feelings from the NBA right up until he got injured. That&#x27;s too bad. I feel really bad about that.”“But again, there is nothing you can do about it. You can&#x27;t bring it back, you can&#x27;t do it again. So you move forward,” Coach Tim added.<div>RELATED VIDEO:</div><script data-wid="auto" type="text/javascript" src="https://content.viralize.tv/display/?zid=AAEyze-tm4MR6kEa&amp;cid=ABTrVYwnj0kBzVtu&amp;activation=click&amp;vip_mode=playing&amp;vip_position=bottom-right"></script>

Kai Sotto is expected to undergo surgery for his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear on his left knee in February.

Kai Sotto is expected to undergo surgery for his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear on his left knee in February.

FIBA: After ACL tear, Kai Sotto expected to go under the knife on Feb 1, says Cone

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FIBA: After ACL tear, Kai Sotto expected to go under the knife on Feb 1, says Cone

Rom Anzures,

ABS-CBN News

Published January 30, 2025 01:43 AM PHT

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