Limping Blatche hopes to play with Gilas in Estonia

MANILA, Philippines -- Gilas Pilipinas' naturalized big man Andray Blatche is slowly recovering from prostatitis (prostate infection) as he joined the half court set drills in the national pool's practice on Thursday night. 

Blatche was seen still limping up and down the floor but his presence was additional boost to the national pool, which lost another player in Star Hotshots' forward Marc Pingris. 

READ: Pingris agent says ward to skip Gilas for now

"I feel good that it was not serious (injury). I'm happy that I was able to get up and down on the court and hopefully, I will have a speedy recovery," Blatche told Philstar.com after Thursday's practice. 

The national pool is scheduled to leave on Monday for Estonia to play in a pocket tournament against the national teams of Estonia, Iceland and the Netherlands.  Gilas hopes that Blatche would be ready to play some minutes by then. 

"We'll be traveling on Monday and I hope I can be out there on the court playing with the guys," Blatche said. 

Gilas coach Tab Baldwin praised Blatche's warrior-like mentality. 

“He’s hard to keep off the court, which I love,” said Baldwin. “But he’s got to take care of himself.” 

As an insurance, Gilas took in PBA top rookie prospect Moala Tautuaa as a back-up player for Blatche. 

Tautuaa holds a Philippine passport but could not play in the FIBA-sanctioned tournaments as a local player due to a rule that states that he should have possessed his local passport by the age of 16.