Dante Exum has trained fully ahead of the Boomers' Olympic clash with Canada and could return from his finger injury one game earlier than expected.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
The Dallas Mavericks guard suffered a compound dislocation of his finger in the side's final warm-up game last week and missed the Boomers' Games-opening defeat of Spain.
The 2014 No.5 draft pick was excellent in Australia's Tokyo bronze medal campaign three years ago, snapping a long run of injuries to dominate in Europe and earn another NBA crack.
It was thought he would also miss Tuesday's clash with the stacked Canadian side in Lille and target a return in the side's final pool game against Greece.
But coach Brian Goorjian confirmed Exum had trained fully on Monday and was likely to suit up against the Shai Gilgeous-Alexander-powered side.
"Ahead of schedule," he said.
"We'll assess how he pulled up, but we think the chances are strong for tomorrow."
RJ Barrett scored a team-high 23 points while Shai Gilgeous-Alexander came up clutch with 21 points, seven assists and five rebounds as Canada beat Greece to open their account.
Giannis Antetokounmpo scored a game-high 34 points for Greece in the loss and looms as a literally large figure beyond the NBA-stacked Canadian team in the Boomers' path to quarter-final action in Paris.
"Good start, but the competition's getting stronger as we go along," Goorjian said.
"Canada's a really strong basketball team, one of the favourites for a medal.
"We want to play good defence, which creates pace and those two things have been our keys to success."
Australian Associated Press
