Russia center Alexey Savrasenko is aware he could suffer the biggest disappointment in his basketball career if a shoulder injury that has ended his season also knocks him out of the Olympics.

Savrasenko, a key man in CSKA Moscow's success the past two seasons, needs to have surgery on his shoulder.

He revealed to Soviet Sport: "The operation will be done on January 23 in Germany.

"It will take me five to six months to recover. I can't exclude the possibility I may miss the Olympic Games.

"It's a great pity. I always dreamed of playing at the Olympic Games."

Savrasenko and Russia took the EuroBasket by storm last summer in Spain, upsetting France and then Lithuania before knocking off Spain in the gold medal game.

Savrasenko was an important player for coach David Blatt, and he's not giving up hope of making it back in time to play at the Beijing Games.

"I'll do my best to recover as soon as possible," he said.