Turkey to start World Cup qualifiers without two key players / News - Basketnews.com

Credit: FIBA Credit FIBA

FIBA World Cup Qualifiers are about to begin, and Turkey will start the new campaign against Belarus at Minsk Sports Palace (on Thursday) and Great Britain in Sinan Erdem Dome, Istanbul (on Sunday) this week.

Shane Larkin

Team:Anadolu Efes IstanbulPosition:PGAge:29Height:182 cmWeight:80 kgBirth place:United States of AmericaProfileNewsStatistics

The national-team call-up list included Tolga Gecim, Bugrahan Tuncer and Shane Larkin from Anadolu Efes, and Melih Mahmutoglu, Metecan Birsen and Sehmus Hazer from Fenerbahce Beko.

Since the Turkish teams are set to play the EuroLeague fixture on Thursday, it became unclear how to select players from these two teams to solve the fixture conflict.

National team manager Muratcan Guler gave a statement to give some clarification on the issue, although the official statement did not include any names.

"We are having problems with our roster due to FIBA and EuroLeague fixture conflict. But we would like to thank both Anadolu Efes and Fenerbahce Beko.

They were very cooperative and helpful to us. One player from each of the two clubs will not play against Belarus, but we are hoping to play with the full roster against Great Britain," said Guler.

BasketNews learned that the missing name from the Fenerbahce Beko for the Belarus game will be Melih Mahmutoglu, who will then join the team for the game against Great Britain.

Likewise, the other name would highly likely be Shane Larkin, although there was no official confirmation from the club. Both of them should feature in a game against Great Britain.

In the other games of Group B, Greece will visit Newcastle to play against Great Britain on Thursday and then will host Belarus, in Piraeus.

The first three teams of the group standings will proceed to the next stage of the competition.

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