Lithuania captain Javtokas to miss Olympics

"It is a huge loss. It's difficult to describe how much we will miss him, not only on the court but also off it," team coach Kestutis Kemzura said in a statement.

Basketball is Lithuania's top sport - dubbed the second religion of this nation of three million, after Catholicism - and there are high hopes that the team could add to the haul of Olympic medals won by previous squads.

Center Javtokas, 32, suffered pain during the Olympic qualification tournament in Venezuela this month, and Lithuanian medics discovered a stress fracture in his foot.

Javtokas, who stands two metres, 11 centimetres (six feet, nine inches) tall, made his Lithuania debut in 2001 and has not missed a single summer with the team since the 2004 Athens Olympics.

The loss of Lithuania's talismanic captain is likely to increase the pressure on 20-year-old rising star Jonas Valanciunas, selected by the Toronto Raptors as the fifth pick in the 2011 NBA draft.

Currently with Lithuanian powerhouses Zalgiris Kaunas, Javtokas has spent most of his career in European clubs.

Lithuania have ranked among the top four in the five Olympic Games since the country's independence from the former Soviet Union.

Their squads won bronze in 1992, 1996, 2000 and came fourth in 2004 and 2008.

Lithuania will play in Group A in the preliminary round in London, along with the 2008 gold medalists the United States, Argentina, France, Nigeria and Tunisia.