France, De Colo to play; Russia. Kirilenko to miss Eurobasket

France have quashed fears that exciting guard Nando De Colo may pull out of the EuroBasket Additional Qualifying Round because of NBA commitments.

De Colo was selected by San Antonio in the second round of last month's NBA Draft and there was speculation that he may play with the Spurs in the NBA Summer League and not be in Europe when the French take on Italy and Finland in Group B of the AQR.

The French Basketball Federation left no doubt about De Colo in a statement on their website which said: "De Colo has made it clear to his agent that his participation in the 2009 campaign of Les Bleus is a priority and that he is anxious to join his teammates to prepare for the qualification round of the European Championship."

If France top Group B, they will face the winners of Group A (Belgium, Portugal or Bosnia and Herzegovina) in a home-and-away tie for the last spot still on offer for the EuroBasket in Poland.

Andrei Kirilenko withdraws from the national team. Kirilenko will just skip this summer, his agent revealed. Although exact reasons for the decision are not known yet, the federation's president Sergei Chernov recently had a meeting with the Utah Jazz forward and at the time he was unsure about taking part in Eurobasket citing personal issues.