Melbourne United sharpshooter Chris Goulding will be part of his NBL team's exhibition games against two NBA clubs after being cleared of serious injury.
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The Boomers guard, who hurt his ankle in the season-opening match, will fly out on Thursday for games against the LA Clippers and Sacramento Kings.
Goulding had a cortisone injection, as did Kiwi international Alex Pledger, who also has an ankle injury, but the pair were able to get out on the court on Wednesday.
United will draft in a small forward and a combo-big for the NBA games with Casey Prather (knee), David Barlow (thumb) and Sam McDaniel (foot) all ruled out of the trip.
"We go with 10 guys from here and then pick up two imports there although right now we don't have names on who they will be," said United coach Dean Vickerman.
"Hopefully they will be at every practice and can get into our system quite quickly."
Vickerman said Goulding was desperate to lead his team on the global stage.
"He always wants to test himself over there and the ankle's responded pretty well so we think by the time the first practice comes around over there he will be ready to go."
Beaten grand finalists last season, United lost their opening two matches - to newcomers South East Melbourne, then champions Perth.
Vickerman said the injury run, as well as the disrupted pre-season due to the FIBA world cup, had made it a tough start but they needed to quickly find their groove.
"We've got a lot of two-game weekends this year and so at a minimum you need to get one," he said.
"We really felt we should have won the Perth game - it was our errors and some key shots from them that won the game," he said.
"We've got to break the season up into quarters right now and we've got another five games to go and we've got to be good to be where we want to be for the first quarter of the season."
United will take on the Clippers on Oct 13 and the Kings three days later.
Australian Associated Press
