Horsham basketball icon Mitch Creek will play for Australia at the 2019 FIBA World Cup in China.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Creek was called into the 12-man squad to replace injured small-forward Xavier Cooks on Thursday morning.
Cooks injured his knee during the Australian Boomers' training camp on Wednesday, opening a place for Creek who plays the same position.
Creek was a surprise omission from the initial squad, left out despite gaining NBA experience last season.
Boomers coach Andrej Lemanis described leaving Creek out as a "heartbreaking" decision at the time.
Creek's South East Melbourne Phoenix coach Simon Mitchell said Creek was ecstatic when he found out the news during a training session on Thursday morning.
"It's been a pretty enormous reaction. All myself and the boys are thrilled for Creeky, we've ridden every bump and roller coaster ride since he went to the United States," Mitchell said.
"The elation that he showed this morning, being among this group of blokes and being able to share it was awesome. We're all chuffed for him."
Australia open their World Cup warm-up schedule with a pair of games in Perth against Canada on August 16 and 17. Creek was flown to Perth to join the squad on Thursday afternoon.
The Boomers also have two highly anticipated matches against the United States at Marvel Stadium on August 22 and 24. All of the Boomers warm-up matches will be televised live on free-to-air television.
Australia will open their FIBA World Cup campaign with a match against Canada at 5:30PM, September 1.
While you're with us, you can now receive updates straight to your inbox twice weekly from the Wimmera Mail-Times. To make sure you're up-to-date with all the news from across the Wimmera, sign up below.