EuroBasket qualifying: Great Britain missing Ovie Soko for qualifiers

Great Britain will be without starting forward Ovie Soko when they resume EuroBasket qualifying with two games in a bubble in France this weekend.

Former Love Island contestant Soko, one of GB's main scoring threats, is unavailable for this qualifying window.

Eight of the players from February's comeback win against Germany are present, including the leading scorer from that game, Luke Nelson.

The team will play France on Friday and Montenegro on Sunday.

The two games had been scheduled as home ties for GB, but will instead be played in Pau, where GB's former Olympic and NBA star Luol Deng made his national team debut in 2007.

"That's a bit of a stinger for us," said head coach Marc Steutel, again standing in for Nate Reinking who is based in the USA and unable to travel to GB.

"We're a little disappointed, but the bigger picture is that we're in a global pandemic and we're fortunate that we're able to get together."

Tarik Phillip, a guard who has experience of the NBA G League and summer league, has returned for the first time since 2018 and highly-rated guard Cameron Hildreth, 18, of National League Worthing is added to the 14 that will travel to France.

GB Squad: Dan Clark (Real Canoe - Spa, 32, 104), Ashley Hamilton (Plymouth, 32, 24), Myles Hesson (Chalon - Fra, 30, 37), Cameron Hildreth (Worthing, 18, 0), Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye (Poitiers - Fra, 24, 4), Ben Mockford (unattached, 31, 37), Luke Nelson (Gottingen - Ger, 25, 21), Teddy Okereafor (Bristol , 28, 44), Gabe Olaseni (Buyukcekmece - Tur, 28, 36), Rex Pflueger (Newcastle, 24, 0), Tarik Phillip (Hapoel Jerusalem - Isr, 27, 6), Kareem Queeley (Burgos - Spa, 19, 0), Conner Washington (Leicester, 28, 8), Akwasi Yeboah (Saint-Quentin, 23, 2).