From Eurobasket.org "11.08.2009 Batum Shoulder Concern For France Nicolas Batum could be questionable for France's crunch game with Italy on Friday because of a shoulder problem. Arguably France's best player so far in the Additional Qualifying Round, Batum felt discomfort during Les Bleus' 82-72 win over Finland in Pau on Saturday but still managed to score 14 points. Early results of exams by doctors have indicated that the 20-year-old has had some "shoulder instability for several months", according to the French Basketball Federation. Batum was held out of practice on Tuesday but is hopeful of rejoining his teammates in training on Wednesday. France have been in contact with Batum's NBA team, the Portland Trail Blazers, to keep them up to date on the player's fitness. Batum has averaged 17 points and 4.3 rebounds per game in France's wins over Italy and Finland." In other news Italy squeaked by Finland yesterday. PeKo had 7 points and 6 TO's. http://www.eurobasket2009.org/en/ci...ANOrUf9le2.season_2009.gameID_6375-B-3-3.html
I have told him a 1000 times.....Do NOT play guitar Hero like Pete Townshend. Hopefully it's nothing more than a minor thing, if it's more scope it quickly and get him ready for the NBA
Nah, I was just making a French joke. I could have also written that this shoulder is a concern if they're going to face Germany, because it would make it difficult to raise his arms to surrender.
That's the one I thought of right away, but didn't want to offend anyone. I had a little twist though. I was going to say Batum hurt his shoulder from the constant surrender practice in grade school.
LOL, nice....messed up....but nice. lol Anyway, I was diagnosed a few months back with the same problem: Shoulder instability with bursitis. Basically it just means the interior muscles of the shoulder are weak and the excess movement of the joint causes pain. Bursitis is just a fancy word for swelling or inflamation. A few months of minor physical therapy and avoiding aggrovating it and it will be just fine.
great interview here, confident without being too arrogant. His shoulder sounds a bit worse than he's letting on, hopefully it will be fine. How is your shoulder, Nicolas? It's fine, I'm rejoining practice this afternoon (Wednesday), the tests confirmed the “instability” of my shoulder, but I got the green light from the doctors. Yesterday, I didn't practice, but it was only a precaution, we didn't want to take a risk. You've been playing with this pain for several months. How has it developed since the end of the season? It's simple, five months ago I was playing with only one arm! I couldn't bend my right arm, I ran with my arm hanging at my side. Whereas today, I'm playing normally, I've never even felt so good! We'll just have to see: I'm jumping everywhere, I'm running everywhere, I'm shooting three-pointers, I'm trying to dunk the ball all the time... What treatment have you had? At the time, we just did a few treatments, but because NBA games are so close together, I didn't skip a single one. On the other hand, I've been lifting weights since the end of the season to reinforce my shoulder and I think that's why it hurts less or even not at all. The pain simply returned because I took a hit. But my shoulder hurts like my knee would hurt if I had taken the hit there. How has Portland management reacted? The French staff transmitted the medical results and we're waiting for their response. I have no idea how they're going to react. There's never been a precedent for this, contrary to San Antonio where we know how it works. So I don't know what to expect. I just hope that I'm not going to have to go there and back like Tony [Parker]. After that, if they want me to come back, there are a few options, maybe I'll be able to play Friday and leave for the U.S. Afterwards. Kevin Pritchard knows that I'm doing well, I had him on the phone yesterday (Tuesday) and he even talked to me about my good statistics. Despite everything, have you managed to concentrate on the game on Friday? Of course! That's all I think about, my priority at th e moment is the French team before everything else. It's a decisive game because after Italy's win in Finland, we know that we can't slip up. If we lose Friday it will be a catastrophe. We know what we have to do, and we'll have the fans behind us, we're going to have a great game. How are you preparing for the game? The same way we prepared for the game over there. Why change when we won? Simply, we'll have to concentrate even more because they know that they still have a chance and they'll give all they've got. Especially after the loss in Cagliari, they'll be looking for revenge, so we know what to expect. But I think that they're afraid of us. We'll have to start out just like we did in Italy, hit them hard, give them a good beating here, and go to the final. How do you react to Carlo Recalcati, the Italian coach, who's spending his time stressing the athletic qualities of the French players? It's getting really annoying. Especially for the older players, I think, because they've heard that for a long time. Basically, it means that we're poor basketball players and that we're just athletes. We want to show them that we also know how to play basketball together and that our win over there wasn't just luck. The group has had to cope with quite a few little problems since preparations began, how do you deal with it? By being united with each other. But don't worry. Little by little, the team will be at 100% and then if we win against Italy, that could trigger the rest, because we know that we'll be able to beat Belgium, Bosnia, and Portugal in the final. After the Euros, if we're serious, we know that we can go all the way. We're aware of that, but we have to work and we can't relax.
Maybe you're thinking of those thigh injuries that prevent the french from stretching their legs apart
It sounds to me like Nic is sailing along on de Nile. I hope the blazer docs are on top of this. barfo
