Gur Shelef, the axed captain of Israel's national team, could return to the side before the start of the European Championships after apologising for criticising coach Muli Katzurin.

Shelef blasted Katzurin in one of the country's largest Hebrew dailies, the Ma'ariv newspaper, after his decision to drop Shelef's Maccabi Tel Aviv team-mate, Lior Lubin, on Thursday because of his woeful performances this summer.

The shakeup in the team has raised eyebrows all over the country where basketball is a hugely popular sport.

Maccabi Tel Aviv, who dominate the game in Israel, are among the powerhouses in Europe and Shelef is one of their key contributors.

It has emerged in the Jerusalem Post Katzurin was persuaded to cut Lubin  by his assistant coach Yoram Harush, the man who coached Israel's Under-20 team in the finals of the European Championships three years ago.

Harush advised his boss to bring in Erez Katz for Lubin. Katz was Harush's captain on the under-20 team and was later made skipper of Harush's Hapoel Jerusalem side.

Lubin's exit means that Katzurin will almost certainly start rising star Yotam Halperin at point guard with Katz his back-up.

Lubin was used sparingly at Maccabi last season and is still uncertain as to where he will play next season.

Katz, a solid defender and a leader, only played two minutes in the ten qualifying games leading up to the Eurobasket.

As for Shelef, once he confirmed to Katzurin that he had criticed the coach, he was dropped and replaced by another of Harush's favorites from his old under-20 side and Jerusalem teams, Moshe Mizrahi.

Shelef has already apologised, and people in the national team set-up are trying to bring calm to the situation so Shelef can come back.

It remains to be seen if he will rejoin the team and if so, whom he will replace.

Forward Yoav Saffar, another Maccabi Tel Aviv player, was made captain when Shelef was cut.

Israel will not play in the Akropolis tournament in Greece.