Montenegro start World Cup preparation with three major absences / News - Basketnews.com

Nikola Vucevic, Kendrick Perry and Marko Simonovic were missing from first day of training camp for Montenegro, while Zoran Nikolic and Fedor Zugic won't make the squad.

Credit: FIBA Credit FIBA

The Montenegrin national team has started preparations for the World Cup, where they will compete along with Lithuania, Egypt and Mexico in Manila to reach the second stage.

Zoran Nikolic

Position:CAge:27Height:213 cmWeight:107 kgBirth place:MontenegroProfileNewsStatistics

At the first gathering, coach Bosko Radovic could count on 14 players, while Nikola Vucevic, Kendrick Perry and Marko Simonovic will join their teammates a few days later.

At the press conference, Radovic revealed that center Zoran Nikolic asked to skip the World Cup, as well as that Fedor Zugic will most probably be sidelined due to injury.

"Nikolic played great in the qualifiers, he played perhaps the best games of his career," Radovic said. "Because of that, he was a lock for Manila. After several talks with him, he decided to dedicate himself to individual work, in order to make a step forward in his career next season," said the selector.

Credit FIBA

"I tried to convince him to be part of the team, precisely because of his important role in the qualifications and the fact that in the coming years he will be one of the leading players in the national team," the 44-year-old tactician continued.

"It's his decision. Although I respect it, I'm sorry it came to that," he commented.

The players currently available are:

Nikola Ivanovic Igor Drobnjak Balsa Zivanovic Luka Bogavac Petr Popovic Vladimir Mihailovic Dino Radoncic Andrija Slavkovic Emir Hadzibegovic Andrija Grbovic Aleksa Ilic Nemanja Radovic Vasilij Baocvic Bojan Dubljevic

Until the start of the tounrnament, Montenegro will play four prep games against France on August 2, Serbia in Podgorica three days later, and finally in Georgia against the hosts and Iran.

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