(UPDATE) FILIPINO young big man Kai Sotto’s highly anticipated return to basketball action suffered a quick setback as he sprained his right ankle during his debut game for the Koshigaya Alpha in their Japan B.League 2025-26 season on Saturday.
The 7-foot-3 Sotto missed his two field goal attempts, but managed to make his presence felt on the defensive end after contributing three blocked shots in their road game against the Ibaraki Robots at Hitachi City Ikenokawa Sakura Arena.
Sotto went for a block on Ibaraki’s Kotaro Hisaoka but landed awkwardly with his right ankle.
It apprently looked like a sprained ankle, but the Filipino slotman managed to pick himself up as he gingerly walked back to the team’s bench.
The Robots were up, 57-43, when Sotto got injured during the 3:34 mark of the third period.
Sotto’s premature exit also saw him issue two assists and a rebound.
The Alphas have yet to issue an official statement as of posting time on Sotto’s injury.
Sotto’s return for sure excited the Filipino fans considering that Gilas Pilipinas will be back swinging back to action on Feb. 26 to host New Zealand, ranked 25th in the world for the 2027 FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers, followed by Australia on March 1. Both home games would be played at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay.
The 23-year-old Sotto is coming off a year-long layoff since tearing an ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) on his knee in a Japan B.League game last season.
The silver lining for the Alphas was they managed to pull off a pulse-pounding 83-81 overtime victory against the Robots to improve their record at 11-20.
Meanwhile, resident PBA stars June Mar Fajardo of San Miguel Beer and Barangay Ginebra’s Japeth Aguilar emerged as the top vote getters for the PBA All-Star game slated from March 6 to 8 in Candon City, Ilocos Sur.
The San Miguel Beer star center amassed the highest number of fan votes, leading the South squad with 33,360.
On the other hand, the 6-foot-9 Aguilar garnered 24,104 votes for the North squad.
Fans cast their votes via online and in-game venues for the period of Dec. 5 to Jan. 18.
Stars are aplenty for both the North and South teams.
Joining the 6-foot-10 Fajardo in the South squad are Ginebra’s deadly backcourt tandem of RJ Abarrientos (31,408) and Scottie Thompson (29,892), with TNT sharpshooter Calvin Oftana (21,770), and NLEX’s do-it-all guard Robert Bolick (20,862) completing the first five.
On the other hand, joining Aguilar in the North team are Titan Ultra’s energetic forward Calvin Abueva (23,404), rookie Juan Gomez de Liano of Converge (16,488), San Miguel’s sweet-shooting CJ Perez (12,716), and Ginebra’s Stephen Holt (12,564).