The Argentine basketball player Emanuel Ginobili, three times champion in the NBA (U.S. National Basketball Association) with San Antonio Spurs, said Wednesday that he may not attend the Olympic Games in Bejing due to a lesion in his left ankle.

However, Ginobili affirmed to Xinhua that he "doesn't want to consider the possibility if (I) will be more outside than inside" of the Olympic Games.

"I'm optimistic. I consider myself part of the process, I want to play and I will do all the possible to attend (the Olympic )," Ginobili said during a press conference in a hotel in the center of Buenos Aires, one hour after he had arrived from his vacations.

After greeting reporters, Ginobili said "before anything, I want to tell u that the lesion in my ankle is worse than what I thought."

Ginobili said "as soon as the season finished I made me deep checkup in my left ankle. (Doctors) found a lot of liquid and a ligament very expanded. On Monday I went to a resonance and it showed that the liquid had gone away, but the ligament continued being very wide, between four and five time more than normal."

"This lesion doesn't allow me to strain the articulation. From here to three weeks I need new checkups but I feel my participation in the Olympic Games are in danger," said Ginobili, considered the best basketball player of the Argentine history.

Ginobili said "it's not a common sprain, because I have had normal sprains and never happened to me something like this," so "now it is about to wait" the results of the magnetic resonance that will be done between July 5 and 6 in San Antonio.

Ginobili was injured in the first leg of the playoffs of the West Confederation of the NBA, during the second match against Phoenix Suns.

Argentina goes to Beijing with the idea on repeating the gold medal, their first match will be against Lituania on Aug. 10.

Argentina is in Group A with Australia, Iran, Russia and a classifier that will comes from the Pre-Olympic of Athens.

(Xinhua News Agency June 19, 2008)