China's national team has been at a disadvantage in the 2012 London Olympics ever since Yao Ming retired, but its basketball team took another potential serious blow on Thursday morning. The new face of the team, former NBA lottery pick Yi Jianlian, had to be helped off the court after a late knee injury in his team's loss to Australia.
Details are scare on exactly what happened in the game, but The Associated Press offers the following account:
Yi had to be helped off the floor by teammates and he was still limping badly when the game was over.
Chinese coach Bob Donewald says it's too soon to tell how serious the injury is. Yi will be examined by doctors later in the afternoon.
Hopefully that examination goes OK considering Yi's team will need to win its final two games of pool -- against Brazil Saturday and host team Great Britain on Monday -- to have even a semblance of a chance at advancing into the knockout round.
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