Romeo, Rosser out of PBA opener

MANILA, Philippines — Even before the opening salvo of the PBA’s Season 47 is fired, San Miguel Beer and Blackwater are already battling injuries to key players.

The Beermen won’t have ace guard Terrence Romeo for the initial battles of the Philippine Cup while the Bossing are unlikely to deploy top rookie pick Brandon Ganuelas Rosser yet.

According to SMB coach Leo Austria, Romeo is dealing with back spasms, unable to practice for about four weeks now.

“We don’t know yet how many games (Romeo will miss). We’re giving him ample time to recover 100 percent,” said Austria, whose team remains potent with six-time MVP June Mar Fajardo, CJ Perez, Vic Manuel, Chris Ross, Jericho Cruz and Marcio Lassiter in tow.

“I talked to the team before and informed them about Terrence and everybody was upbeat about stepping up in lieu of Terrence,” Austria also said.

The Beermen, who are out to win their first title since the 2019 Commissioner’s Cup, will kick off their bid on Wednesday against Phoenix.

Hit harder by health issues were the Bossing as the fancied Rosser couldn’t even practice yet as he recovers from a fractured finger he sustained while playing for Gilas Pilipinas 3x3 in the last Southeast Asian Games.

“Unfortunately, I won’t be able to play the early part of the conference but hopefully soon I’ll be able to join these guys for practice and games,” said the 6-foot-7 Rosser, who is expected to miss the first two weeks of action.

He expressed faith that JVee Casio, Baser Amer, Rashawn McCarthy and Rey Suerte will rise to the challenge.

“We have a good group of guys that are really hungry and are working hard in practice,” said Rosser.