Barangay Ginebra will have to play the crucial Game 5 without Most Valuable Player (MVP) winner Jayjay Helterbrand.

Ginebra Jong Uichico disclosed Saturday that Helterbrand is a doubtful starter because he has yet to recover fully well after he pulled his right hamstring during Game 4.

“I cannot say. He’s day-to-day, so we’ll get there,” Uichico told the Bulletin Saturday in a phone interview.

“We’re trying to prepare even without him, we also want to prepare with him. We’re having a hard time.”

“We’re doing the best we can. We’re spending so much time to things that we might not be able to do,” Uichico added.

Without Helterbrand, the Kings will be hard-pressed to beat the Beermen, who scored a wild 106-104 win last Wednesday that tied their best-of-seven series at 2-2.

The pivotal fifth game is set at 7 p.m. tomorrow at the Araneta Coliseum with the Beermen going for their first back-to-back win in the series.

With less than four minutes to play in Game 4, the 6-foot-1 Helterbrand was pulled out by Uichico because of a hamstring injury. He never returned and that gave San Miguel the extra edge.

He scattered 22 points, grabbed four rebounds and had six assists in 40 minutes of action with only a single turnover in Game 4.

After the game, Uichico said that the injury is nothing serious, and mentioned that he knows Helterbrand will be ready come Game 5.

But that was three days ago.

With Helterbrand still not in full strength, the management and coaching staff will not force Helterbrand to play in Game 5.

The big question now is who is going to fill the void.

Helterbrand averages 16.75 points, four rebounds and 5.25 assists in the Finals.

Last season in this same Fiesta Cup Finals against Air21, Helterbrand suffered a similar hamstring injury in Game 2. He missed the next five games of the series won by the Kings for their title No. 8.