BASKETBALL
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Wollongong coach Gordie McLeod made the difficult decision to leave hard-working forward Dave Gruber out of the Hawks line-up in Sunday's 91-89 home loss to Cairns.
Gruber was bedridden with illness for Wollongong's opening two games against Townsville and Sydney.
The 198-centimetre veteran played 12 minutes off the bench in Friday night's 10-point loss to the Wildcats in Perth, only to be left out of the team for the clash with the Taipans.
It remains to be seen if Gruber returns for Thursday's away game against Adelaide and Sunday's home meeting with the New Zealand Breakers.
NBL rules stipulate that teams can only suit up 10 players per game. McLeod has 11 contracted players on the roster and will have to drop one player every week.
"We've got 11 guys.
"That's the reality of where we are," McLeod said after Sunday's narrow loss.
"We made that call to go with four guards, because if one of our guards went down, it's not much use having a big guy in that situation.
"Of course it's tough, but that's the situation we're in and we're going to have to deal with that as a group," he said.
Gruber is Wollongong's strongest interior defender and most effective low-post player at the offensive end.
He is a team-first kind of guy and would have accepted McLeod's decision, but Gruber will be stinging to be re-inserted into the 10-man line-up for this weekend's crucial games.