Freak injury forces second Supercat withdrawal

GEELONG Supercats’ finals campaign has been dealt a second blow, with recruit Ma’alo Hicks ruled out of tonight’s preliminary final against Nunawading with a collapsed lung.

The “freak” accident happened at training on Wednesday night in the latest setback to the Supercats’ title hopes.

Just last week, star import DeMarcus Gatlin suffered a season-ending foot fracture.

The pair were both in hospital on Thursday going under the knife.

“DeMarcus got out of hospital (in Melbourne) yesterday and is recovering, but Ma’alo is still in (Geelong) hospital and until his lung is able to inflate on its own he’ll stay there,” coach Leon O’Neill said.

“Hopefully that’s a couple of days, but it will be at least six weeks to two months before he plays sport again.

“We shot free throws, we’d had a break and were about to get into our next drill and he was doubled over. He can’t put a finger on when it happened or if he received a knock; it was just one of those freak things.”

O’Neill said it would be an uphill battle to progress past the preliminary final with two of the side’s starting five unavailable.

“We’ve got nothing to lose now, we’ll be rolling the dice and trying to get the game played on our terms,” he said.

“We’ll have to mix up our defence and be really smart about the way we look after the basketball.

“Hopefully we get a lot out of that defence we have because Ma’alo and DeMarcus together, they make up about 30-plus points and 20 rebounds (a game) that we’ve got to try and find. It’s going to be a big ask for the boys, but one we’re looking forward to again.”

Despite the setback, O’Neill said the Supercats would play the same way they have for the past six weeks. “And that’s been some pretty good basketball, regardless of who’s been out there on the court. You can’t just say, ‘Come in and do what DeMar- cus does’ because you just can’t. But it will just mean Jamie Medved will start in his place and ‘Meddy’ will play the way he does; he’s played 360-odd games so he certainly knows what’s required in finals basketball.

“It makes our bench a little bit shorter but we’re one of the deeper teams in the league so we should be able to cover that as well.”

The away match starts at 6.30pm. The Geelong Lady Supercats take on Sydney Uni tonight at The Arena at 7pm.