Maccabi Tel Aviv Opens Preseason Games With Significant Player Absences

Maccabi Tel Aviv will begin their preseason games for the upcoming season on Thursday at 5:00 PM against Bnei Herzliya at Yad Yosef. The game will be closed to the public and broadcast live on the club's media channels.

The team is facing a particularly depleted roster after only two weeks of training. Several key players are unavailable: Jalen Hudson and Daniel Theis have not yet joined the team, Jake Layman has just started training and will not play, and Jimmy Clark suffered an injury this week and is expected to be sidelined for several weeks. TJ Leaf and Gur Lavi are also injured.

Additionally, Roman Sorkin and Yair Madar, who recently returned from playing with the Israeli national team, may be rested and will gradually rejoin the squad. Consequently, Maccabi Tel Aviv is expected to field only eight senior players, comprising four foreign players and four Israelis.

The foreign players set to play are Keeton Wallace, Bonzie Colson, Josh Nebo, and Armando Bacot, who has reportedly impressed in early training. The Israeli players expected to participate are Amit Avrahami, John DiBartolomeo, Will Rayman, and Shane Hunter. Although Rayman and Hunter, both considered naturalized players, cannot play together in official games, they are expected to get minutes in this preseason match. Several young players will round out the roster.

The club anticipates that by their next preseason game against Maccabi Rishon LeZion next week, Layman, Madar, and Sorkin will have joined the team. It is also possible that either Hudson or Theis will be available for the practice match against Rishon LeZion.