Gilas Pilipinas head coach Tim Cone has ruled out the possibility of Kai Sotto playing in the FIBA Asia Cup in August owing to the anticipated long recovery period from the big man’s knee injury.

Cone revealed that Sotto is expected to undergo surgery to repair his anterior cruciate ligament injury any time soon and his timetable for return could go from nine months to a year.

“I think what I heard last is that the surgery is going to be around the 1st of February. So, sometime this week, probably, he might have the surgery. And then from there, we count the months. Minimum nine, probably twelve,” said Cone.

While the injury is certainly a huge blow to Sotto’s career which seemed to be taking a leap this year prior to getting injured, Cone is confident that the 22-year-old can overcome the adversity.

As for Gilas, the veteran coach said the Nationals simply need to find a way to move forward even without Sotto.

“He'll be out for maybe a year. But, he's young. Twenty-two. If you're going to have it, now's the time. At that age, he can easily recover from that. The medical profession is really amazing these days in what they can do,” Cone stressed.

“Like I always say about injuries, it's almost cruel to say it, but this has always been the philosophy, You feel bad about injuries for ten minutes, then you move on. Because there's nothing you can do about it,” he added.

With Sotto out, expected to fill in the void is Japeth Aguilar, Mason Amos and even Troy Rosario who was recently named to the Gilas reserves list.

But there’s no doubt in Cone’s mind that Sotto will remain a pillar to the program even after the injury. The Nationals are even expecting to return in time for the beginning of the FIBA World Cup qualifiers.

“We'll keep our eye on him. That's for damn sure. Because he's the key to this program. No doubt about it,” stressed the multi-titled mentor.

“We won't be paying him to play until, hopefully he'll be starting to play sometime in the World Qualifiers,” he added.