Spain guard Jose Manuel Calderon is confident team-mate Jorge Garbajosa will recover from his ankle injury in time to be ready for the start of next month's EuroBasket.

Garbajosa suffered a displaced left ankle joint with a ligament tear and fractured fibula while playing for the Toronto Raptors in an NBA game against Boston Celtics in March.

The giant forward then underwent surgery to repair the damage the next day and had been expected to miss the EuroBasket.

However, the 29-year-old is now training with the Spanish squad as they build for the start of the EuroBasket and Calderon, who plays alongside Garbajosa for both the national team and at Toronto, revealed that his team-mate is getting closer to fitness.

		Garbajosa played an important role in Spain's run to the 2006 World Championship title.

"Jorge is working hard to be fit and is preparing for the tournament. He is training well and I think he will be ready in time, although it obviously depends on his ankle and what the doctors say," Calderon told PA Sport.

Nevertheless, should Garbajosa fail to recover in time, Calderon believes Spain have good options in the squad to replace the forward, who was one of the stars of last year's FIBA World Championship success in Japan.

"Jorge is a great player and is so versatile. We hope he is ready in time, but we have other good players with a lot of quality who can come in as well," he added.

Spain are aiming to win the EuroBasket title for the  first time in their history when they host the tournament this year, having finished fourth, second, third and second in the last four editions.

"Obviously our objective is to win, but it will be very difficult as there are a lot of good teams involved," the former TAU Ceramica star added.

"We have to keep our feet on the ground and respect all of our opponents. I think in a way it is more difficult than the World Championship. 

"There are 10 or 12 teams who can beat you, whereas in a World Championship, you don't really come up against the stronger teams until the quarter-finals."

Calderon believes three rivals in particular will make life difficult for Spain.

"Greece, Lithuania and France are probably the teams to beat. They are all very dangerous," he continued.

But the 25-year-old, who was also a key part of Spain's gold-medal winning side at the World Championship, hopes that home advantage can work in the team's favour in the EuroBasket.

"We are playing at home and the support of our fans will be invaluable. We have a great support and are keen to do well for them," said Calderon, who is currently preparing along with the rest of the Spain squad at a training camp in Cadiz.

"We are working hard and things are looking good. We are working on our fitness now and will play our first match against Venezuela next week."

Pepu Hernandez's side face the South American nation in a warm-up game on August 8, before meeting Portugal, Lithuania (twice), Czech Republic, Greece, Germany and France in a busy month.

Calderon believes those matches will be useful to experiment with players and formations before the EuroBasket.

"We will be able to try a lot of things out in those games and it will also be good to play against some of our rivals before the EuroBasket," said Calderon, who described the atmosphere within the squad as "great" and hailed the work of coach Hernandez.

"He gets on so well with all of the players and makes sure that everyone feels important. We have been very together since the day he joined us and the atmosphere is great."

Spain tip-off their EuroBasket campaign against Portugal on September 3, before facing Latvia the following day and then meeting Croatia in their final Group B match 24 hours later.