Bojan Bogdanovic has injury scare in a Croatia loss

Indiana Pacers forward Bojan Bogdanovic appeared to get injured in a game for the Croatian national team today, but after a while, it became clear the injury is probably minor.

Over the weekend, we saw Indiana Pacers forward Bojan Bogdanovic lead Croatia in scoring in a tough loss to Lithuania. He put up a typical Bogdanovic stat line, but it wasn’t enough to sway the score in favor of the Croatian team.

The story today was supposed to be about redemption for Croatia. After that devastating loss, they needed to turn it around as they pushed for World Cup qualification.

In the end, for Croatia fans, the story was the same. The team lost a close one to Poland with the final score of 79-74. But for Pacers fans, the story was much different.

They all tuned in to watch Bojan Bogdanovic and see if he could once again be a solid performer for Croatia. But the story changed in the second quarter. Croatia was pushing ahead on a fast break when the Bojan got scuffed up.

Bojan tried to stay in the game but had to intentionally foul someone to be subbed out right after the injury occurred. It didn’t look great for his ankle.

At halftime, we learned that the injury was, in fact, his ankle and that he felt some pain in his knee. But he warmed up at halftime and felt fine enough to come back into the game in the third quarter.

He then played nine consecutive minutes and a substantial part of the second half. He seemed to be good to go, or at least he appeared to avoid serious injury for the time being.

Bojan Bogdanovic finished the game with 22 points, five assists, and two rebounds. He shot 50 percent from the field in the process.

Bogdanovic apparently had a limp when he did a postgame press conference:

So who knows how severe the injury is. He played in the rest of the game, but he had a limp. Perhaps this could have long-term effects, but it is too early to say. This situation is one to monitor going forward.