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Pakistan’s star all-rounder Shoaib Malik had his elbow operated upon in the South African city of Cape Town recently. He has expressed the hope that he would be fit in time to accompany the Pakistan team on its tour of England, which begins in late June.

The 24-year-old Shoaib from Sialkot has appeared in 15 Test matches and 117 One-day Internationals for Pakistan since 1999-00. He is expected to fully recover from the operation in four to six weeks’ time.

His doctors in South Africa have termed the surgery a success and hoped that with proper exercise and physiotherapy, Shoaib would return to international cricket in full form. A piece of floating bone was extracted from his elbow through the operation.

Shoaib had complained of extreme pain in his elbow both while bowling and batting. His bandages have already come off and he would resume training soon after getting back home.

Meanwhile, fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar is also expected to start training again in full force within a month’s time, after getting back his rhythm through light training. Recently, after orthoscopy, Shoaib resumed bowling at the nets in Lahore but only with half his speed.

At the moment, Shoaib Akhtar is in Malaysia where he is busy shooting a commercial. His stress fracture of the ankle has fully healed, according to his personal physician Dr Tauseef Razzaq, and the doctor is happy with the progress made by the pace bowler. The PCB is hoping that Shoaib would fully recover by the time the national team sets off on its England tour.

Source: The News

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