The Houston Rockets went into a shopping spree this past offseason, adding the likes of Fred VanVleet and Dillon Brooks to complement their young core of Jalen Green, Amen Thompson, and Jabari Smith Jr. In addition to those signings, the Rockets also added former Phoenix Suns big man Jock Landale on a four-year, $32 million deal to bolster the team's depth behind Alperen Sengun. However, Landale's Rockets career may not get off to as strong a start as both parties would like following an unfortunate development during his preparation for Australia's participation in the 2023 FIBA World Cup.

Early on during Australia's tune-up game against South Sudan in Melbourne's Rod Laver Arena, Landale had to exit the contest after suffering an ankle injury. While there's always considerable uncertainty surrounding an ankle injury, the Australia national team brass appears to fear that the Rockets center will be missing the entirety of their FIBA World Cup campaign, which begins on August 25 in Okinawa City, Japan.

The head coach of the Australia national team, Brian Goorjian, made ominous remarks regarding Jock Landale's status for the upcoming international tournament.

“Telling the truth here, he's not getting on the plane with us. He's gonna have an MRI. It didn't look great, so they're gonna deal with that here; we're gonna travel with the 12 we've got now and prepare. I'm on the mindset right now as if we don't have him,” Goorjian said, per Olgun Uluc of ESPN.

Jock Landale played in only five minutes and 22 seconds before exiting the game, paving the way for Duop Reath and Harry Wessels to receive the majority of center minutes for the Boomers. Reath played well, dropping 15 points on 6-8 shooting from the field, so it's not like the Boomers will have a huge void to fill in the aftermath of the Rockets center's injury.

Australia will play in one of the most difficult groups in the tournament. In Group E, they will be facing Germany, a team that has Franz Wagner and Dennis Schroder, Japan, who'll have Yuta Watanabe headlining the roster, and Finland, who'll have Lauri Markkkanen on the frontlines.