Perth Wildcats assistant Coach Gerard Martin says it could be more than a couple of weeks before star Bryce Cotton takes the court again after suffering a serious rib injury.
The 32 year-old is facing an uncertain about of time on the sidelines after scans revealed he suffered fractured and displaced ribs – a rare condition with no clear recovery timeline.
The four-time NBL MVP went down within the first three minutes of the Wildcats loss against the New Zealand Breakers over the weekend after receiving a knock to the ribs. He was then escorted off the court by club medics, then taken to hospital where scans confirmed the injury.
Speaking to SportFM, Martin says it could be more than a couple of weeks before Cotton is fit enough to return to the court.
“It’s all about the pain tolerance and how he’s progressing with the pain and then, when they do take a step forward, how it responds,” he said.
“With something like this, when there’s a little research and experience on it, it’s really a touch and go each day and week sort of thing.
“So fingers are crossed that it’s much less than what it could be and not looking too far ahead, not putting any pressure on him, making sure he’s feeling comfortable in what the rehab looks like.
“Once he’s back, we’ll know he’ll be raring to go.”
The Wildcats went on to record their fourth loss this season, going down to the Breakers 89-85 at Spark Arena in Auckland.
Early in the final quarter, the Breakers had a 12 point advantage which the Wildcats managed to chip away at and bring down to two points, but the home side managed to hang on.
This is the third time this season the Wildcats have lost a game by under five points, after clawing their way back from a wide margin in the final quarter.
Martin says the main takeway from the match was more consistency across the four quarters is needed to avoid narrow losses.
“We have moments where we compete at the level that we really feel like that’s allowed us to win games, but then we have lapses that we don’t quite execute,” he said.
“The league has such good teams. If you don’t play and compete at that level, you need to get it done. It’s going to not turn out the way you want it to, and it’s been such close games.
“We just keep being on the back end of close games, and we can’t just look at the end of the game, it’s the full 40 minutes that we need to keep improving.”
On Friday, the Wildcats will face the Sydney Kings without Cotton at RAC Arena, and will search for redemption after suffering a heartbreaking one-point loss against them earlier this season.
Martin predicts it will be ‘unpredictable” for the Kings to prepare given the loss of such a key player.
“When Bryce is out there, you know what you’re going to get out of him. He’s going to be heavily scouted, but you know the coverage of production you’re going to get,” he said.
“Now we have a lot of different guys that are going to step up and make plays and it’s going to be nine, ten guys deep.
“Definitely unpredictable and I’m excited to see how our guys respond and how they’re going to step up with some preparation and what we’ve been doing the last couple of days.”
IMAGE: NBL