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HOUSTON: China’s giant center Yao Ming will undergo surgery Monday
to fix a stress fracture in his left foot, the Houston Rockets
announced on Saturday.
Yao, who is already out for the rest of the NBA
season and whose long-anticipated Beijing Olympics campaign is in
jeopardy, will have the surgery at the Memorial Hermann-Texas
Medical Center in Houston. Rockets doctor Tom Clanton will perform
the surgery.
Before the injury, the 27-year-old Yao was
enjoying one of his best seasons in the NBA, averaging 22.0 points
and 10.8 rebounds per game.
Numerous times this season Yao carried the
Rockets on his giant shoulders but his teammates have rallied in his
absence winning their first two games without him and extending
their winning streak to 14 games. They are seventh in the Western
Conference.
The injury could also impact Yao’s
availability to lead the host country at the Summer Olympics in
Beijing in August.
Yao said on Wednesday that he is still hoping to
be able to play in the Olympics.
“If I cannot play in the Olympics for my
country, that would be the biggest blow of my career,” he said.
“I don’t want to know how disappointed the people in China would
be. I’ll do the best I can to come back, get stronger, protect
myself.”
Yao was healthy during his first three seasons
in the league but has suffered since the 2005 to 2006 campaign, when
a toe injury saw him miss 21 games between December and January. He
also suffered a broken foot in April 2006, ending his season.
A year later, Yao fractured the right tibia in
his foot on December 23 and did not play again until early March,
interrupting a season in which he had put up MVP-caliber numbers.
-- AFP
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