SAN ANTONIO (FIBA Basketball World Cup/2015 FIBA Oceania Championship) - A rotator cuff injury kept Australia's Pat Mills out of the FIBA Basketball World Cup, robbing the Boomers of their most explosive player on offense.

The 26-year-old guard from the defending NBA champions San Antonio Spurs, having also been sidelined for the first two months of this NBA season with a shoulder injury, is now playing and looking almost as good as new.

"Everything is fine," he said to FIBA.com.

"The shoulder is fine now.

"It has been a few months of playing now so the shoulder is not an issue anymore."

"It was a long rehabilitation, but like I said, nothing is wrong with the shoulder now.

"I feel a lot better."

Australia would have felt a lot better if Mills had been able to help them out last year.

Even without him, they had a very good team but lost to Turkey in the Round of 16.

The setback was about as painful as they come in international basketball because Andrej Lemanis' squad wasn't able to protect a double-digit lead.

Mills admits that missing last summer's World Cup was one of the biggest disappointments of his career.

"It wasn't good to sit out and watch the games," he said.

"I have missed out on two so far.

"It is not a good feeling to not be out there with the team, but I am looking forward to playing and fight for a spot for the Olympics."

The team standing in their way is a very good Tall Blacks side, one that reached the Round of 16 last year as well and only exited the competition after a narrow defeat to Lithuania.

I will be ready for the qualifiers and hopefully move on from there - Mills

San Antonio have reached the NBA Finals the past two years and won the title in 2014.

They are going to need all hands on deck to reach the title series this time.

Mills understands what his role in the team is.

"I need to be aggressive on defense and play that way by also shooting the ball with confidence on the other way," he said.

"Some days you make shots, some others you miss them, it is just about thinking about the next game and keeping your head up."

Mills certainly will never want to forget what happened last year in the Finals, when he provide a real spark for the Spurs and helped them capture their fifth NBA crown.

The 1.83m guard wants to remain healthy and contribute as much as he can.

More important than anything, he says, is that the Spurs win.

"[We need to] Make sure we compete with a lot of energy every night and that starts with defense," he said.

FIBA