Spain suffer Gasol blow for final

Spain's chances of winning a first world basketball championship have been severely hampered by an injury to the talismanic Pau Gasol, who misses today's final against Greece with a broken bone in his foot. The Memphis Grizzlies forward was hurt near...

Spain's chances of winning a first world basketball championship have been severely hampered by an injury to the talismanic Pau Gasol, who misses today's final against Greece with a broken bone in his foot.

The Memphis Grizzlies forward was hurt near the end of Friday's epic 75-74 semi-final win over Argentina, depriving the clash between two first-time finalists of the only NBA all-Star on either team's roster.

A Gasol-powered Spain would have been slight favourites to beat European champions Greece after the side posted their 17th consecutive victory in reaching the final.

Without the 26-year-old's 21.3 points and 9.4 rebounds per game, Spain could struggle against a physical Greek team that shocked odds-on tournament favourites the United States 101-95 in the other semi-final.

Gasol suffered a broken metatarsal after falling heavily against Argentina and left the court in a wheelchair, to the obvious distress of his team-mates.

"We will try to win gold for Pau," said guard Jose Calderon, whose late free-throw sealed Spain's famous semi-final win.

5/6th position match: France vs Turkey 64-56.

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