Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo might not be playing in the FIBA Basketball World Cup this summer, but he is expected to be fully ready for next NBA season.

The Athletic's Shams Charania first reported on Wednesday that the 28-year-old Antetokounmpo underwent a cleanup procedure on a knee two weeks ago and his status for the Greece national team is uncertain.

The World Cup is set for Aug. 25-Sept. 10 in the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia.

"Yes, he had a routine surgery on his left knee and it went great," Bucks coach Adrian Griffin said later Wednesday. "Everything went as planned and we expect him back ready to go in training camp."

Antetokounmpo was hampered by several nagging injuries last season, and he has fought through a lot of pain in his 10-season career. A lower back contusion suffered in Game 1 of the Bucks' first-round series with the Miami Heat caused him to miss the next two games. He returned in Game 4, but Milwaukee's season ended with a 4-1 series defeat.

Antetokounmpo has also been bothered by pain in both knees, but the Bucks star missed several games this season with left knee soreness. He sat three of four games from Nov. 5-11 and didn't play in three others before Jan. 1 because of the ailment. The soreness then caused Antetokounmpo to miss five straight games from Jan. 12-21.

The left knee is the one he hurt in the 2021 Eastern Conference finals before making a return in the NBA Finals and leading the Bucks to their first championship in 50 years.

Antetokounmpo missed several games in the 2021-22 season due to soreness in his right knee.

Last season he was also plagued by a right wrist injury suffered when he fell into a basket stanchion in Chicago on Feb. 16. He never missed any games because of the wrist, but he could be seen icing it during games the rest of the season.

Not long after the Bucks were eliminated, Antetokounmpo and his family headed back to Greece, where they spend the majority of the offseason. Griffin flew there to spend time with Antetokounmpo in early June and teammate MarJon Beauchamp also headed to Greece to work out with the star.

Beauchamp has since returned to the United States and will play for the Bucks' summer-league team in Las Vegas starting this week. He did not notice anything wrong with Antetokounmpo during their time together.

"Giannis is Giannis," Beauchamp said on Wednesday. "So, yeah, he's good."

Antetokounmpo's brothers, Thanasis and Kostas, are still expected to play for Greece in the World Cup. Thanasis has been with the Bucks since 2019, but no deal for next season has been reported.

Giannis played for Greece in 2014 and 2019 during the FIBA World Cup, and also in the 2015 EuroBasket and 2016 Olympic qualifier. Interestingly, he sat out the 2017 EuroBasket with knee pain. That drew the ire of officials in Greece, who felt the Bucks had orchestrated the move.

Giannis was back with the Greece national team last September for EuroBasket. When he returned to Milwaukee a few weeks later to start training camp with the Bucks, he broke down how playing international basketball helps his game.

“First of all, the game in Europe is way harder than the game in the NBA,” Giannis said. “I know the talent obviously in the NBA is way higher, but the space, you have a lot of lanes to drive the ball, a lot of lanes to create.

"Over there, it’s more intense. People will pick you up full court, double-team you, full-court zone to man-to-man to the last five seconds. And double-teams, they start with zone and then go man-to-man the last 10 seconds and then double-team you in the post; there’s no lanes to drive, it’s just more physical.”

Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.

DOWNLOAD THE APP: Get the latest news, sports and more

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Bucks' Giannis Antetokounmpo had 'routine surgery' on his left knee