Mersey Tigers captain Drew Sullivan will be fit to lead the team out at the O2 Arena for the BBL Trophy Final against Guildford Heat on Saturday.
Sullivan, 31, sat out Sunday’s victory over Essex Pirates and only featured briefly during Friday’s defeat against Plymouth Raiders at the John Amaechi Centre in Manchester.
The Great Britain star had suffered an injury in training last week, and coach Tony Garbelotto was keen not to risk the injury as the Tigers hunt victory in their second cup final appearance of the season.
Garbelotto said: “Drew will be back for the final. He could have played thirty minutes on Friday, and had we been playing a Sheffield or a Newcastle, he probably would have played.
“I was scared to get to Saturday’s start line with all of my players intact, so it was just a case of nursing them through, but I took a loss on Friday, and there’s no question that Drew is a massive part of what we do, and we missed him.”
The 88-81 defeat against Plymouth featured a fourth quarter collapse, and it was something Garbelotto hadn’t factored in to his final preparation, despite bouncing back to beat bottom team Essex Pirates on Sunday.
He added: “It would’ve been a good warm up had we won on Friday because we would have been on a three way winning streak and comfortable with everything we’re doing but we need to do a good job in practice this week and everyone has got to be absolutely on their a-game next week.”
