Samaraweera to undergo surgery for knee injury: officials

By P. Karunakharan, Colombo, March 4 : Sri Lankan cricketer Thilan Samaraweera, who suffered gunshot injuries in the thigh and knee when his cricket team members came under a targeted terror attack in Lahore, will undergo surgery at a private hospital in Colombo, an official said Wednesday.

"Samaraweera is keeping fine. But he has to undergo surgery to remove pellets from his knee. There is nothing to worry about," chief executive officer of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) Duleep Mendis told IANS.

A former Sri Lankan skipper, Mendis said all the injured players other than Samaraweera and Tharanga Paranawitharana have gone home after treatment.

"Paranawitharana is also in the hospital," he said.

Sri Lanka's wounded and traumatised cricketers, who braved a well-planned terror attack in Lahore, returned home in the early hours of Wednesday to receive an emotional welcome, even as the island's foreign minister reached Islamabad to discuss the terror attack on the players that shook the entire cricketing world.

Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama accompanied by Sri Lanka's High Commissioner designate Air Chief Marshal Jayalath Weerakkody called on President Asif Ali Zardari at the Presidential Palace in Islamabad and discussed the issues in the aftermath of the terror attack, official sources here said.

The outcome of the discussions was not known immediately.

Samaraweera scored his second and successive double-hundred during the second and final Test against hosts Pakistan only the day before the attack at Gaddafi stadium in Lahore. He is only the seventh batsmen in the history of Test cricket to have scored a double-hundred in consecutive matches.

Director General of the Sports Ministry's medical unit Geethanjana Mendis said Sri Lanka's cricketers would need at least two weeks to recover from the shock effect of the gun and grenade attack during their Pakistan tour.

"The boys are physically fit, but they are all suffering from trauma. They are strong-minded guys but need about 10 to 15 days to bounce back completely," Geethanjana Mendis said, adding the players were still recalling the bloody events of Lahore.

A team of 12 terrorists ambushed and sprayed bullets and fired rocket propelled grenades at the convoy carrying Sri Lankan players to the Gaddafi international stadium to play the third day of the second and last Test against Pakistan Tuesday.

--IANS