Nemanja Bjelica to miss games against Greece and Turkey / News - Basketnews.com

Svetislav Pesic confirmed that Nemanja Bjelica won't play in FIBA World Cup Qualifiers games, but added that his injury is not as serious as it was thought.

Credit: FIBA Credit FIBA

National team head coach Svetislav Pesic confirmed that Serbia will face Greece and Turkey in the FIBA World Cup 2023 Qualifiers without Nemanja Bjelica.

However, the good news is that Bjelica's injury isn't as serious as it was thought.

"Bjelica won't play, but diagnoses say it's not as serious an injury as we thought at one point. He won't play these two games for sure," Pesic said before Thursday's game against Greece.

Injury concern for Bjelica isn't the only problem Serbia is facing. Nemanja Nedovic is also feeling some pain and his status is still unknown, while Marko Guduric returned to training after missing the last friendly game against Germany.

"Nedovic fell on his hip, but he's fine. He has an injury, but he shows great desire to recover as soon as possible, so he's recovering surprisingly well," Pesic admitted.

After today's practice, we'll decide who will play; while in Turkey, we might make some changes to our roster, so we'll wait. Guduric is training, I'll see how ready he is. The rest, they're all healthy," Pesic concluded.

It will be two key games for Serbia (1-3) as it currently sits in 5th place in Group I. To clinch a spot in the upcoming World Cup, Serbia must finish in at least third place in the group.

Serbia will face Greece (3-1) on Thursday and Turkey (2-2) on Sunday.

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