BENDIGO Spirit will literally limp into their final match of the 2018-19 WNBL season against the Canberra Capitals.
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The Spirit have been rocked by injuries ahead of their Saturday clash at Bendigo Stadium against the championship favourites.
Their growing list of casualties has been compounded by the absence of star import Becca Tobin, who has returned to the United States to deal with a family tragedy.
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With last season’s team MVP Nadeen Payne battling knee and Achilles injuries and in doubt, the Spirit face the prospect of being without their two leading scorers from this season against a Capitals team averaging a league best 84.45 points per game and boasting two of the league’s top six scorers in Kelsey Griffin (19.1ppg) and Kia Nurse (17.85ppg).
Development player Courtenay Wragg will also miss Saturday’s game with personal commitments.
On a more positive note, young centre Maddi Wild returned to training on Tuesday morning and is hopeful of playing on Saturday.
Coach Simon Pritchard, who will coach his final game for the Spirit this weekend, said while his team resembled the ‘walking wounded’ it was a situation plenty of sides would find themselves in at this point of the season.
“The good things is we will get to play everybody (who is available) in that last game,” he said.
“Nadeen hurt her knee on the weekend, (and) she has an Achilles injury.
“She can’t train today (Tuesday) and is unlikely to train on Thursday. It’s just a matter of whether it recovers in time for Saturday.”
The Capitals head to Bendigo on an eight-game winning streak, with Pritchard predicting the championship was “theirs to lose’. The Spirit are aiming to snap a run of four-straight losses.
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