Lithuania suffer Sabonis blow

Arvydas Sabonis has failed to recover from surgery

Lithuanian centre Arvydas Sabonis, an Olympic gold medallist in 1988, will miss the Sydney Games with a foot injury.

In June the 35-year-old underwent foot surgery and is still suffering from swelling.

Sabonis, who plays for the NBA Portland Trail Blazers, has informed Lithuanian officials he will not be available, local media reported on Wednesday.

Sabonis made the decision after consulting with Trail Blazers trainer Jay Jensen, who is staying in Lithuania with Sabonis to help his rehabilitation.

The loss of Sabonis is a severe blow to the 1992 Olympic bronze medallists, who are also without forwards Arturas Karnisovas and Virginijus Praskevicius due to injuries.

Long acknowledged as one of the best big men in the game, Sabonis was drafted by the Trail Blazers in 1986 but was not allowed to the leave the Soviet Union to play in the US.

He won an Olympic gold medal with the USSR in 1988 and was named European player of the year four times before he began his career with Portland in 1995.

Last year he averaged 11.8 points per game and 7.8 rebounds in helping Portland to the NBA western conference finals where his team lost in the seventh game of a best-of-seven series to the Los Angeles Lakers, who went on to win the championship.