Perth Wildcats coach Trevor Gleeson is confident that Terrico White's latest wrist injury isn't serious, but the NBL grand final MVP has been sent off for scans as a precaution.
White underwent scans on Monday after injuring his left wrist during Perth's pre-season loss to Illawarra in Tasmania on Friday.
Worryingly, it's the same wrist he injured last season.
The 29-year-old managed to play through the pain of the wrist injury at that time, and even snared MVP honours during the Wildcats' grand final series victory over Melbourne United.
White averaged 22 points per game during the 3-1 series win.
The American looms as a crucial cog of Perth's championship defence, and Gleeson doesn't think the new injury is related to the old one.
"It's just when he fell he jarred it. It didn't improve, but it's not the same injury as last year," Gleeson said.
"He taped it up. He trained on Saturday. It was heavily taped up, and then on Sunday it didn't improve at all so we didn't play him.
"We're doing it as a precaution to scan it to make sure there's nothing major there."
Wildcats guard Mitch Norton is nursing a minor groin injury that is set to rule him out of this week's practice matches against Melbourne and Brisbane.
Perth's season begins on October 5 when they host Melbourne United - the early favourites to win the championship - in a grand final rematch.
The Wildcats, boasting imports White, Bryce Cotton, and Dario Hunt, are also tipped to challenge strongly, despite Sunday's 103-71 loss to Sydney Kings at the NBL Blitz.
Perth were missing White and Norton in that match, while other stars were on limited minutes.
Kings recruit Didi Louzada, the 35th pick in the NBA draft this year, scored a game-high 29 points in a standout display.
Louzada, part of the NBL Next Stars Program, nailed eight of his 11 three-point attempts.
Australian Associated Press
