Medical commission sheds no light on Shoaib's injuries

The Pakistan Cricket Board has finally released its long-awaited medical-commission report into Shoaib Akthar's mysterious wrist and rib injuries from the recent third Test against India at Rawalpindi, and the conclusion is inconclusive, to say the least.

The report chronicles the events surrounding Shoaib's withdrawal from the attack during Pakistan's decisive defeat last month, but is unable to shed any new light on the situation. Curiously, the commission never got to see hard copies of the X-rays that were carried out on his chest and wrists in the immediate aftermath of the match, while two of the three radiologists concerned offer conflicting opinions about the MRI scan that Shoaib underwent three days later.

One of the radiologists reported that Shoaib was suffering from "muscle contusion with focal haemorrhage and edema", but the other two found nothing unusual about the scans, and it was their diagnosis that was upheld by Dr Mohammad Wajid, the chairman of the commission.

But the confusion is intensified by the bone scan that Shoaib underwent two weeks later, which highlighted an "intense increased uptake" in his 11th rib. "If the injury is so diffuse," states Dr Wajid, "why did it not show up on [the] MRI images of the bone or the muscles surrounding it?" The objective evidence is not conclusive, and it is recommended that Shoaib should undergo one further scan in two weeks' time, to determine once and for all whether he has a stress fracture.

In his final summing-up, and having discussed the less-controversial injuries sustained by Umar Gul, Shabbir Ahmed, Moin Khan and Abdul Razzaq, Dr Wajid makes a series of recommendations, principal among them being the establishment of a database of each player's medical histories. In Shoaib's case, it promises to be a long file.