Rillie confirms Doolittle's injury status

Perth head coach John Rillie has "ruled in" a return for import forward Kristian Doolittle against the Adelaide 36ers, following a severe looking knee injury suffered in last week's loss to Melbourne.

Doolittle had to be helped from the court following the injury and missed Perth's defeat to Sydney two days later.

Although he was seen icing the problem knee following yesterday's training session, the 26-year-old will travel to Adelaide for Saturday's clash.

"He was out there performing, scoring buckets and playing defence. I’ll rule him in but I’m not the medical expert. Doolittle is going to be travelling to Adelaide and playing," Rillie said.

"Any sportsman that goes down like that you hold your breath that it doesn’t impact their career for any kind of length, so it’s great to have him in practice this week and him rejoining our team."

The Wildcats have had some teething issues in NBL24, and the new-look side is still finding its feet and navigating through the early stages of the new campaign.

The impending availability of Doolittle and return of Kyle Zunic means the Wildcats have a full roster of players to choose from.

John Rillie says it's a good problem to have.

"This is the third time we've had everyone healthy to take on the road with us," he said. "I’ve got 27 players for 40 minutes, they all want to play 40," Rillie said.

“I can say it’s a great thing, because as we’re trying to search and find ourself having everyone available is great to have in that situation.

"You have to have those conversations with guys so they understand where they fit and when their opportunity comes along. Dave Okwera plays against Sydney and hadn't played in the last couple of games and he did a great job coming in. The old coaching cliche 'you'd better come and be ready for your opportunity' - because your opportunity will come at some stage."

Perth has been under pressure due to its early season performances, and the Wildcats currently sit in eighth on the ladder with a 2-3 record. 

They started their season with a 101-95 win over Tasmania and have already defeated Adelaide this season, but have dropped games against Sydney, Melbourne and South East Melbourne.

“We have to win games, so I’ve got to find the rotation that works to help us score more points than the other team,” he said.

“You want to be able to go in the back end of the season fresh, so at the start you like to play as many guys as possible. But you have to allow players to find their rhythm in it all as well.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Mama, there goes that man!<br><br>KP has been taking flight in NBL24. ? <a href="https://t.co/5u6dcfRz9C">pic.twitter.com/5u6dcfRz9C</a></p>&mdash; Perth Wildcats (@PerthWildcats) <a href="https://twitter.com/PerthWildcats/status/1714215479961919882?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 17, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The Wildcats head to Adelaide to take on the 36ers on Saturday. The game tips off at 8pm AEDT, and you can watch the game live on ESPN via Kayo.