NZ Breakers captain Tom Abercrombie will undergo surgery on Tuesday night, hoping to recover from an eye injury in time for the team's Aussie NBL home opener against Tasmania Jackjumpers on October 7.
Now in his 14th year with the club, Abercrombie, 35, lasted less than a minute of their pre-season loss to Brisbane Bullets, before copping an elbow to his left eye and suffering a detached retina.
The initial prognosis suggested he could spend up to three months on the sidelines recovering, but since arriving back in Auckland from Darwin, the veteran forward has learned he could be back much sooner, depending on how surgery goes.
"The surgeon in Australia was talking anywhere from two weeks to three months recovery time and seeing the surgeons in New Zealand, it was the same," he said.
"But based on the different options and different types of surgeries, I'm hoping this option is in the one-to-two-week recovery zone. The other option is six weeks of recovery, which is a pretty significant amount of time.
"I'm not going to know until tomorrow morning what the recovery time is and how it looks, so at the moment, I'm a little in the dark."
Abercrombie, who holds club records for games played, points scored and three-pointers, has spent most of the last two years exiled across the Tasman during the COVID-19 pandemic, but has also hampered by a side strain last season.
"It's been nearly 1000 days since I played a game at home and there’s nothing more I've been looking forward to than October 7 at Spark," says Abercrombie. "Hopefully, with this surgical option and the recovery time, it's still a realistic target for me."
Abercrombie was scrambling for a loose ball, when he took a finger to the eye from former NBA centre Aaron Baynes.
"It was a bit of an inconspicuous poke to the eye," he said. "I didn't think there was too much to it.
"It doesn't look like anything is wrong with it and it doesn't hurt, but I can't see certain stuff at the moment. In terms of places to tear your retina, it's in a reasonably good place, but it is close to the centre."
While Abercrombie goes under the knife, his team will contest their second NBL Blitz outing against Illawarra Hawks at Darwin.
Meanwhile, the Breakers have signed American Jamaal Brantley - older brother of current import Jarrell Brantley - as an injury replacement. The 2m (6ft 6in) forward attended Cameron University and last played in The Basketball League for Shreveport Mavericks.
