Ergin Ataman said Polonara did not play the last two weeks because he was injured.
Anadolu Efes Istanbul forward Achille Polonara has not played since December 16 in the EuroLeague, meanwhile, Ergin Ataman hinted about his possible departure from the club last week.
Following Thursday's loss in Tel Aviv, Ataman provided an update regarding Polonara saying that the Italian player was injured and that was the primary reason why he has not played recently.
"Actually, he was injured the last two weeks. He had some problems with his legs and he had his first team practice yesterday following a two-week absence," Ataman stressed.
"Today, we started with Amath M'Baye and we also chose to use Will Clyburn in the power forward position because Maccabi played with four guards for some period of time. He [Polonara] did not have a spot tonight, but he is okay. He is our player and we will see. I think that he is not too happy with the minutes he is playing. We will consider him, but he is our player and we will use him," the Turkish coach said.
A week ago, Ataman noted the contacts that Polonara's side had with other clubs. He also said that Polonara did not compete because of the game schedule.
"Unfortunately, we couldn't get the contribution we wanted from Achille Polonara, so we can't play him in league matches [due to a foreign player limit]. This situation created unhappiness in Polonara. That's why his manager contacted us and stated that there are clubs that want Polonara," Ataman said at that time.
"He is of course a very important player. There is a 1-week transfer window in EuroLeague in 2 weeks, and we told him that we can talk about it if the appropriate conditions are met," the coach explained. "If Polonara goes, we have alternatives, we even have more than one alternative. We're looking into the situation but the reason he didn't play today was because of our match schedule."
The Italian forward averages 2.9 points and 2.2 rebounds per game in 14 EuroLeague contests.
