Jawai finds out just how bad injury is
SNAKES centre Nate Jawai will see a foot specialist today to find out the extent of the injury he suffered on Friday night in the opening game of the NBL season.
With the club fearing he has plantar fasciitis, the big man saw a doctor on Saturday just hours after coming down hard on his foot as he scored his 11th and 12th points in the Taipans’ win over Illawarra. Jawai, playing his first NBL game since shoulder surgery, pulled up sore after scoring at the basket late in the second term – at that point he was the leading scorer (12 points, five rebounds) – and did not return.
Snakes coach Aaron Fearne hopes his prized centre, 30, will not spend long on the sidelines but knows he will need to be in top shape for the rest of his career to prevent such injuries.
“He will get a scan Monday morning to determine exactly what it is so hopefully it is not that bad he is out for an extended period of time,” Fearne said on Saturday night.
“He was very, very good in that first half – that was some of the best basketball we have seen him play in that 14-minute patch.
“He does not have a history of foot injuries but mine and the club’s fear is that obviously as he gets older – he is a big man – he has to make sure he is bang on with his conditioning and the weight he is carrying.
“Otherwise he will have these type of injuries, which we cannot afford at all.
”We think it could be plantar fasciitis but not sure.”
If Jawai was to miss an extended period of the 2017-18 season, it would throw the first half of the season into disarray, with import forward Michael Carrera still out for another month following knee surgery.
Fellow import Jerry Evans Jr was signed as an injury replacement for Carrera last week.
Meanwhile, the NBL has reviewed the scoring of Friday evening’s game in Cairns and is satisfied the score of 88-87 is correct. There were discrepancies between the score on the television feed and at the game at times.