Basketball: Breakers captain Tom Abercrombie set to miss start of ANBL season

Tom Abercrombie says he's gutted to have injury strike at this stage of the season. Photo / Photosport

Breakers captain Tom Abercrombie looks set to miss the start of the ANBL season after suffering an injury during the side's pre-season victory over the Sydney Kings on Friday.

It's a huge blow for the team with the injury's initial assessment spurring a prognosis of a four-to-six week layoff for the 34-year-old.

The injury occurred when he was chasing through a handoff and clipped hips with another player, straining his side and oblique in the process.

"The prognosis they said is four to six weeks, but the physio and the doctor haven't seen anything like this before," says Abercrombie.

"So there's not a whole lot for them to go off in terms of recovery times, so it's going to be one of those ones where you wait and see how it pulls up."

He admits the injury is disruptive to the team and his own build-up to the season - he says he was playing just his second basketball match in eight months - but he is trying to look for some positives.

"While it's unfortunate it has happened in pre-season, we haven't started the season yet. We've got two more pre-season games to work on rotations, and next man up will be ready to step up and play well," he says.