Setback for APR: Osborn and Boungou-Colo Injured ahead of BAL 2025

The team won the tournament by defeating the United Generation Basketball (UGB) 94-92 in a match held on Sunday, April 27.

The New Times reported that Shema Osborn suffered a knee injury, which will keep him out of action for between six and nine months.

Nobel suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon, which will keep him out for between eight months and a year.

It is a big loss for the army side club, APR, as the duo were expected to be key players in the Nile Conference matches to be held in Rwanda from May 17th to 26th at the BK Arena.

Shema is one of the key players in the national team, who is now unlikely to be seen in the African Cup of Nations to be held in Angola in August 2025.

Nobel was one of the new players that the army team acquired to strengthen its position in the BAL.

In this competition, APR BBC is grouped with Al-Ahli Tripoli (Libya), MBB (South Africa), and Nairobi City Thunder (Kenya).

Last year, APR, currently led by coach James Maye Jr., performed very poorly in this competition, failing to reach the finals held in Kigali. Currently, they have announced that the goal is to recover and go as far as possible.

In these groups, preliminary and playoff matches are played. The top two teams will secure a ticket to the finals (playoffs), while the other two will be eliminated from the group stage.

Before the finals, which will be held in South Africa from June 6th to 14th, 2024 (Note: Year likely a typo and should be 2025), eight teams will play qualifying matches before being drawn into the quarter-finals, semi-finals, and final.

The last tournament was won by Petro de Luanda of Angola, becoming the first sub-Saharan team to win the tournament since it began in 2020.

By Dylan Mugenga