By John Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
Dmitry Kulagin will not participate in the 2019 FIBA World Cup due to his eye injury, the Russian Basketball Federation announced. The 27-year-old swingman was in Sergei Bazarevich’s list despite being injured, but the medical staff of the Russian national team ultimately determined that the will not be able to recover in time.
The press release on Lokomotiv Kuban’s player followed a similar announcement on Alexey Shved and his exclusion from the World Cup. Semyon Antonov, Nikita Balashov, Joel Bolomboy, Vitaly Fridzon, Vladimir Ivlev, Sergey Karasev, Artem Klimenko, Mikhail Kulagin, Nikita Kurbanov, Andrei Lopatin, Grigory Motovilov, Alexander Platunov. Andrey Sopin, Evgeny Valiev, Andrey Vorontsevich, Artem Zabelin and Andrey Zubkov are still available.
Russia will be part of Group B in the World Cup. First match at Wuhan will be against Nigeria on August 31st, games versus South Korea on September 2nd and Argentina on September 4th will follow. First or second place will lead to Group I action at Foshan, third or fourth to classification matches.