The bus driver who took Ankara's team to practice suddenly stepped on the breaks, causing the Turkish team's head coach Erdem Can to injure his neck. After the practice, the coach was taken to the hospital. Despite the injury, he should available for the game.
Turk Telekom Ankara and Gran Canaria will battle in the EuroCup Final on Wednesday evening for a ticket to the EuroLeague. On the day of the match, the Turkish team got into a traffic accident that caused their head coach to be hospitalized.
When the team was driving to the practice, the bus driver turn up the volume of the radio, disturbing the players and the coaching staff. Ankara's head coach Erdem Can then asked him to turn the volume down. Moments later, the driver suddenly stopped the bus. Pushed by the momentum, Can hit his head into the front glass of the vehicle.
"The coach hit his head against the glass and hurt his neck. He led the practice with a neck brace and was later urgently taken to the hospital on a stretcher," Ankara's general manager Onder Kulcebas told Turkish TRT Spor.
"He is currently undergoing an MRI. He has a serious injury. We don't want to blame the EuroCup or Gran Canaria but the person who caused this will pay for it," he said.
Kulcebas believes it was a deliberate action by the bus driver.
"The bus driver who brought us to the gym took 40 minutes to drive us on a 10-minute route. We were late for the practice," the GM commented. "He then turned up the volume of the radio. We asked him to turn it down a few times. When our coach wanted to go and turn the volume down, he deliberately stepped on the brake."
Despite the injury, Erdem Can should be available for the game, the operative said.
Last week, Can was named EuroCup's Coach of the Year.
The game is scheduled to start at 21:00 CET.
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