Melbourne United guard Shea Ili could miss game three of the NBL grand final series after a head knock

Losing on home court was bad enough for Melbourne United but now a star guard with a history of concussions is under a cloud for game three.

Melbourne United guard Shea Ili’s history with concussion was enough for coach Dean Vickerman to sit him down after another blow in Wednesday’s loss in game two of the NBL grand final series and he faces a nervous four days before being cleared for Sunday’s third game against the Illawarra Hawks.

Ili, the league’s defensive player of the year, sustained a head knock in a second-quarter collision with Hawks guard Will Hickey in Wednesday night’s cliffhanger 102-100 loss at John Cain Arena that locked the five-game series 1-1.

It was a knock considered serious enough for United to perform a concussion test.

The 32-year-old passed the test on the night, but United decided that he would sit out the second half of the game as a precaution.

Ili’s wretched history of concussions was a factor in United’s decision.

United medicos will keep a close watch on Ili to make sure there are no delayed concussion symptoms.

“Obviously with the history, we didn’t feel like it was the right thing to put him back out there tonight,” Vickerman said.

Shea Ili has a history of concussions. Picture: Daniel Pockett/Getty Images

“I can’t tell you yes or no right now (if Ili will play Sunday).

“That was obviously a positive step for him to pass that test.

“Moving forward, we’ll assess him again tomorrow and see how he’s doing and hope he’s OK.”

If there is a player United needs to lift going into Sunday’s game three, it is star forward Jack White.

White had six rebounds but failed to trouble the scorers in 18 minutes and was a -13 in plus-minus.

“We need him to be more aggressive than that to not shoot a shot tonight,” Vickerman said.

“We’ll put some positive messages to him and tell him to continue to be aggressive.

“Down the stretch, I thought he rebounded well and that was the part of him that can really help us as well.

“Hopefully, his rebounding can ignite some pace for us and the confidence for him to go ahead and be super aggressive.

“We need him and we saw that in the Perth game after game two. We needed him and he turned up for that game three.”

Dean Vickerman hopes Jack White can recapture his best form. Picture: Daniel Pockett/Getty Images

While it was only a two-point defeat in an epic encounter, Vickerman had plenty of gripes about his team’s performance in game two.

At the top of the list was his disappointment at getting out-rebounded 42-35, including giving up a huge 22 offensive rebounds.

“The rebounding has been a massive factor in both games so far,” he said.

Vickerman said the Hawks won all the big moments, the key 50-50 plays, while his side’s 16 to six turnovers proved critical.

He was also unhappy with the foul count and felt like the game was refereed differently from game one to game two.

“For a team that showed unbelievable foul discipline and had four fouls for the whole second half up in Wollongong and to see what we got on our home floor, I just felt that was certainly different,” Vickerman said.

“We’ll put our own questions to the referees about why that was so different tonight, but maybe they (Illawarra) put their head down and drove and created more contact tonight than they did that other night.”

Originally published as Melbourne United guard Shea Ili could miss game three of the NBL grand final series after a head knock