While Luca Vildoza will be available for Olympiacos against Anadolu Efes on Friday night, Thomas Walkup will miss his 4th straight EuroLeague game and Keenan Evans will need more time until he joins team practice.
Thomas Walkup has been unable to practice with his Olympiacos Piraeus' teammates since last week, when he suited up in the Reds' loss to Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens for the Greek league.
Walkup reported back discomfort in the game against Bayern Munich on 10 January for EuroLeague Round 20, and has only played in the Greek derby ever since. Hence, he was also ruled out of Olympiacos' Round 24 contest against Anadolu Efes Istanbul at the Peace and Friendship Stadium, thus recording four consecutive absences.
That's a rather unusual development for a player who has missed just one EuroLeague absence in his previous 3.5 seasons at Olympiacos.
On the other hand, Luca Vildoza was practicing individually, as he was recovering from the abdominal injury he suffered in Round 23, but has now overcome the setback and will be good to go vs. Efes on Friday night.
The same goes for Moustapha Fall (finger) and Shaquielle McKissic (virus) have recovered from their recent issues, returned to training, and are available for coach Giorgos Bartzokas.
The Greek tactician was asked about Keenan Evans' recovery status, in light of the American guard's inclusion in his team's EuroLeague roster.
Bartzokas stressed that the former Zalgiris Kaunas guard is yet to enter the team program, but added that Evans is "progressing positively."
"He's a workaholic athlete. He spends more hours than we tell him to. We're tracking him, there's a protocol," Bartzokas said.
"He hasn't joined team practices yet, just individual training. He still has a long way to go until he reaches that point."
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