Cleveland Cavaliers’ Ricky Rubio, 32, said on Saturday that he will miss the upcoming World Cup for mental health reasons.
The 32-year-old Spanish player of the NBA club Cleveland Cavaliers Ricky Rubio announced on Saturday that he was putting his basketball career on hiatus for mental health reasons.
– I have decided to interrupt my professional career to take care of my mental health, the Spanish player said according to the news agency AFP.
The player requests privacy for his decision and said he will inform about the continuation of his career later.
Rubio made his decision just a few weeks before the World Cup in Japan, so Spain will be without its biggest star. The playmaker is said to have left the national team at the beginning of the week, so he was not seen on Saturday when Spain faced Venezuela in the World Cup preparatory match.
On Saturday, Rubio thanked the Spanish Basketball Federation for their understanding and support in his decision. Four years ago, he was with Spain to win the World Cup in China and was chosen as the tournament’s most valuable player.
Rubio, who started NBA games in Minnesota in 2011, has suffered from an anterior cruciate ligament injury twice during his career, most recently in the 2021-2022 season. Injuries have kept the player out of the Spanish national team for two years.
The Spaniard moved to the Cavaliers shirt in August 2021 with a contract worth more than 16 million euros. Last summer, the club and the player signed an extension contract, which has two more years left.
Rubio and Susijeng’s NBA star Lauri Markkanen played as teammates in Cleveland in the 2021-2022 season.
Sources: AFP, ESPN, Marca