Lakers center Pau Gasol has finger surgery after injury during practice with Spain team

Pau Gasol has surgery on finger in Spain

MADRID — Los Angeles Lakers center Pau Gasol had surgery on his left index finger after an injury during practice with Spain’s national team. He will be sidelined at least three weeks.

The Spanish basketball federation said Tuesday that Gasol damaged a ligament Monday while blocking a shot. He will wear a splint for 20 days, but the federation did not say if he will play in the European Championship in Poland, which starts Sept. 7.

Gasol, however, hopes to do so.

“I want to be with my teammates and fight for the championship,” the Spanish news agency Efe quoted him as saying at a news conference in Cadiz. “I don’t see why I would have to drop out.”

He said he has spoken with the Lakers and and expects to get approval to play with the national team.

Spain is the reigning world champion but lost to Russia in the final of the 2007 European Championship. It was runner-up to the United States at the Beijing Olympics.