MANILA, Philippines -- Kai Sotto is “fully expected” to come to the Gilas Pilipinas practice on Monday, Coach Chot Reyes said Friday night.
This as they continue to await whether the 7-foot-3 big man is healthy enough or not.
Reyes told reporters after practice Friday night that Sotto underwent an MRI on Thursday, the same day he arrived in the Philippines.
The results of the test should be available by the weekend, the coach bared.
“We fully expect him to be at practice on Monday,” Reyes said.
Sotto just arrived from a frustrating Summer League stint with the Orlando Magic.
The big man played only two of the five games for the Magic, the second of which was cut short due to back issues.
Reyes said that he never questioned Sotto’s commitment to the team.
“He has always said that he wants to come and play for the national team. That has never been the question,” he said.
“The question is always the schedule and how quickly he can come in and train with us. The commitment was never an issue,” he added.
Sotto showed up to Gilas’ tune-up game against Ateneo de Manila University on Thursday.
He, however, did not suit up.
Assistant Coach Tim Cone said he has not yet talked with Sotto regarding his return to practice.
“That is a conversation he had with coach Chot, he did not have his conversation with me so I’m not sure about that yet,” Cone said.
Meanwhile, Reyes said that he was “very disappointed” with the way Gilas played during the tune-up game.
“I thought Ateneo outplayed us. And that's something we had a long meeting today about,” he said.
“But I said, we can't allow a game like yesterday to kind of jolt us into suddenly playing better because we have a very small margin for error right off the bat,” he added.