Gilas head coach Nenad Vucinic will be needing other players to step up heading into Sunday's game against India as Carl Tamayo suffered a sprained ankle after a 106-60 loss against New Zealand Thursday, June 30.
Tamayo provided the spark for Gilas after dropping 16 points and five rebounds but was, unfortunately, taken out of the game after sustaining the injury in the payoff period.
"It's very hard to see in three days if he (Tamayo) will be able to recover. And if he does recover and put on a jersey, he's probably not gonna be effective as he would without an injury," said Vucenic.
"So other players need to step up but we know that we came with three guys on forward position and now we're down to two. So it's difficult but again, we don't want excuses. We want to try and have a good game and have a chance to win on Sunday," added the 57-year-old Serbian-Kiwi tactician.
Without Tamayo, Gilas keeps its fingers crossed and is expected to field 10 players against India at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.
Naturalized player Ange Kouame is still out of the lineup due to a partial ACL tear while the likes of Rhenz Abando, William Navarro, Kevin Quiambao, Geo Chui are expected to double their efforts.
Against the Tall Blacks, Abando and Francis Lopez made their names known wearing the national teams' jerseys while veterans Dwight Ramos and Kiefer Ravena also added firepower aside from their leadership against the Tall Blacks.
The Philippines sustained a 1-2 record in the first round while India has yet to win after three games.