Red Sparks star Megawati Hangestri Pertiwi spoke out about the injury suffered by her teammate, Vanja Bukilic, when playing against GS Caltex in the last match of the fifth round of the Korean Volleyball League, Saturday (22/2).
Vanja Bukilic suffered an ankle injury in the first set of the match because she landed wrong after stepping on Gyselle Silva’s foot.
Since then, Bukilic has not been able to continue the game because he had to receive intensive care. Seeing her teammate injured, Megawati admitted to being sad.
“Actually, I was shocked, I wanted to cry too, aah Buki,” said Megawati.
“But I kept trying, even though I was thinking about it. Until the third set I was still thinking, what about Buki? I was sad too,” added Megawati.
In that match, the Red Sparks won 3-0 (25-23, 25-23, 25-12). Megawati became the best player or MVP of the match after scoring 16 points.
“But I tried my best, today I tried to focus more even though there was an incident like that, but we can be together until the end, thank you also to my friends for their support,” said Megawati.
In an official statement on Monday (24/2), Red Sparks said Vanja Bukilic suffered a torn ligament and is expected to undergo four weeks of recovery.
“Bukilic underwent an examination at the hospital on the morning of the 24th and was diagnosed with a torn ligament in his left ankle. He is expected to undergo rehabilitation for about 4 weeks,” said the Red Sparks official team.
With a four-week recovery, Bukilic will be absent from the sixth round of the Korean Volleyball League. Bukilic’s absence has the potential to affect the Red Sparks’ target of ranking second in the final standings of the Korean Volleyball League.
In the midst of Bukilic’s injury, the Red Sparks have the opportunity to bring in new foreign players. However, it seems that this will not be chosen by the team.
To recruit foreign players, teams participating in the Korean volleyball league can only bring in figures who have participated in tryouts at the beginning of this season. This means that there are limited replacement players.
