Murali's shoulder might need surgery

Muttiah Muralitharan is expected to miss the rest of South Africa's tour of Sri Lanka and could be a doubt for the ICC Champions Trophy in September too after the aggravation of a shoulder injury that has left him needing urgent surgery.

Muralitharan has been nursing a sore shoulder for many months, but prior to the first Test in Galle he complained that the pain was becoming worse. He played in the Test, taking five wickets, but aggravated the injury and is now suffering "intense pain".

Sri Lanka had hoped that he would have recovered sufficiently to play in the second Test, but one hour before the start of play they decided that the risks of playing him were too great. He was replaced by Rangana Herath, a left-arm spinner.

"We decided to not play Murali this morning because he was in intense pain and there was a grave risk that he would miss the ICC Champions Trophy," said Ajit Jayasekera, the team manager. "He played in Galle but that aggravated the injury.

"We sent an MRI scan to Dr. David Young in Melbourne on Monday, and he says there is a fluid build-up that needs to be removed. It seems that the fluid is too deep to be removed here and we may have to send Murali to Australia. We are discussing the situation with David Young and will know more later in the day."

Murali had regained the world record from Shane Warne in Galle before this latest setback.