Hotshots stick with Romeo

ROMEO Travis stays with Magnolia despite crashing with an injury.

Magnolia head coach Chito Victolero has no plans of replacing the injured Romeo Travis.

Travis sat out in the Hotshots’ 89-95 loss to Blackwater in the 2019 Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Governors’ Cup Wednesday night because of an ankle injury.

Despite playing all-Filipino, Magnolia still managed to give the Elite a big scare and Victolero said they will stick with Travis.

“We asked our PT (physical therapist) if how many games he’ll miss or how long he will be out, but they said we might rest him for today so that on Sunday there will be a higher percentage that he’s healthy,” Victolero said.

“We will not look for other imports anymore because it’s only one game and besides if ever will do that, he’ll be arriving late. And we didn’t want to gamble on that and we’ll just wait on Romeo,” he added.

Travis suffered the injury in the team’s 89-90 defeat to San Miguel Beer last Friday.

But after sitting out against the Elite, Victolero expects his import to be available in their game against Barangay Ginebra on Sunday.

“He’s better now. He can walk again now. And we’ll try maybe tomorrow to include him during the shoot around and when we run our plays and we expect him to play on Sunday,” Victolero said.

“This is a temporary setback. But what’s important is for him to be able to comeback. We need to take care of his injury and focus on our goal, which is one game at a time and reach the playoffs. What’s important is we reach the playoffs and have a chance to defend our title.”