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The Breakers are unable to travel to Perth due to the Covid outbreak.
The New Zealand Breakers were forced to pull their Australian NBL clash with the Perth Wildcats on Friday due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
Seven players have tested positive for Covid, and another three are unable to play due to injury.
The Breakers were due to travel to Perth on Thursday, but they are not leaving and have confirmed their NBL status.
“Covid isolation requirements are still in place in New Zealand and as a result, the Breakers cannot join a team that meets the minimum number of players under NBL rules to participate in a game,” it read.
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The game will be rescheduled for a later time. The league enjoyed a streak of 74 games at that time and we consider this particular situation to be a minor inconvenience.
Andreas Cornaga/Photosport
NZ Breakers coach Mody Moar and the team watching from the sideline
The league will work with the Breakers ahead of Wednesday’s game in Brisbane next Wednesday and will continue to monitor the situation.
Breakers coach Mody Mayor said the team could not make the trip to Perth any time soon.
“It’s a ground thing for us, we want to play this game,” Moar said.
“We finally had a week to build up to the game, have practice and we were ready to compete.
“The rules in the NBL say you have to have seven players or more compete in a game and you don’t.”
With the NBL season set, it could be tricky to reschedule the trip to Perth, but Moar said the club will win with whatever is put in place.
“The logistical aspects of this are going to be complicated any way you look at it,” he said.
“Time is a complicated thing and if you put leather in the middle of it, there will be ramifications.
“Sadly, we’ve had a very good experience with this, our medical staff, our training staff has been used to recover players from Covid. Like everything we do, player safety comes first.
Breakers general manager Simon Edwards said this was yet another factor the club had to deal with due to Covid.
“Out of all the sports teams in the world, the Breakers have probably had it the hardest, in terms of relocations, in terms of playing in empty stadiums and the league understanding that we’ve gone through and the NBL understanding that we’re not going to do it. roll and grow,” Edwards said.
“Of course it feels like dejavu, but we have shown that we are resilient in two years,” he added.
“This is unfortunately not new to us and we have had these types of discussions with the NBL before.”