BROOKLYN (NBA/EuroBasket 2015) - Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as Brooklyn Nets fans received an extremely pleasant surprise at the weekend and Mirza Teletovic might yet have more good news for them in the coming days.

On Friday, the Bosnian national team captain was cleared to return to basketball activities and on Saturday he practised with his Nets team-mates for the first time in almost three months, when he was diagnosed with Bilateral Pulmonary Embolus. Or, more importantly, he went through his first full practice session with the team more than three months ahead of schedule, since he was not supposed to return to the court before July, at best.

On Sunday, Teletovic travelled with the squad to Atlanta for Brooklyn's first game in this year's NBA playoffs, but the Nets had announced in advance that he would not be listed as inactive in the opening clash of the series against the Hawks.

Brooklyn lost Game 1 99-92 and the consensus is that Teletovic will watch Game 2 in Atlanta again from the sidelines.

What about Game 3 however, when the series moves to Brooklyn, or what about even further in the series?

Will Teletovic complete this amazing surprise by stepping out on the court three months earlier than everybody expected?

"The guy's been off for three months," Brooklyn coach Lionel Hollins replied after Sunday's game.

"He's had two practices, you can't expect a guy to come out and play like that," he added, clearly indicating that the only real issue now is how fast Teletovic will get into game rhythm.

The Bosnian star himself offered little clues about the exact date of his return.

"I'm trying to get back into it," Teletovic said prior to his second practice with the team.

They're going to look at it and see, and then probably decide if I'll play or not play, but for now I'm just happy to be back. - Teletovic

"I'm just going to work out.

"The doctors are there, they know what's best for me, and the coaches are there, they know what's best for the team.

"They're going to decide, it's not up to me."

The versatile forward has indeed done his part for the past three months and that, in tandem of course with the success of the therapy, are the reasons he has made this amazingly swift recovery.

As soon as the first stage of his treatment had completed, the doctors had told Teletovic that he could work out as long as he kept away from contact basketball and the notoriously workaholic forward spent his day in the gym staying in shape and putting up 1,000 shots per day.

Teletovic was diagnosed with multiple blood clots in the lungs on 22 January, after experiencing shortness of breath in an away game against the Los Angeles Clippers.

Thanks to the insightful intervention of Brooklyn's physical trainer, Tim Walsh, who insisted that the Los Angeles hospital perform a CT Scan on the 29-year-old star forward, the diagnosis came right in time to prevent the worst case scenario.

Teletovic started treatment with blood thinners and in February both the player and the Nets announced that he was aiming to return to action in about six months.

That obviously meant that not only the current NBA season was over for the Bosnian team captain, but also that his participation at EuroBasket 2015 was under serious doubt.

Following this surprise development however, Teletovic is now expected to lead his country when they take to the court in Montpellier for their EuroBasket 2015 opener against Poland, on 5 September.

Bosnia and Herzegovina will also face Israel, Russia, Finland and hosts France in Group A.

Go to www.eurobasket2015.org for full coverage of EuroBasket 2015.

FIBA