S Thawfeeq: Top knee surgeon to decide Nuwan Zoysa's fate (11 Jun 1998)

11 June 1998

Top knee surgeon to decide Nuwan Zoysa's fate

by Sa'adi Thawfeeq

Nuwan Zoysa's fate will be decided by one of Australia's top knee surgeons.

The six foot, five inches gangling right-arm fast-medium bowler will leave for Australia next week to determine whether he is to undergo a minor or major operation in his right knee which he damaged in South Africa.

"Zoysa strained his knee when he landed awkwardly as he went to bowl one delivery and, his knee hyper-extended and it went back as it landed. He stretched one of the ligaments which is a major one and, ninety-percent of the cases that I have seen requires quite a significant amount of surgery to fix it," said Sri Lanka team physio Alex Kountouri.

"The surgery involves a knee reconstruction and takes about five to six months to heal. The only thing going for Zoysa is that its a small tear, a partial tear of his ligament. So there is some chance that he may be able to play without a major operation," he said.

That decision will be taken in Australia.

"When the surgeon goes in to repair the small operation and sees the ligament and notices that its actually more torn than the scan showed, then he might as well perform the big operation then and there," said Kountouri.

Presently, Zoysa's got a little bit of pain because part of the ligament is pinching one part of his knee.

"What we got to do is a small arthroscopy operation to remove that litle part of the ligament that is been torn and, leave the rest of the ligament intact and try to bowl him. The operation is only a 20-minute thing and he will be able to bowl after about 10 days or two weeks.

"If he is okay, then he can continue to bowl until he breaks down. But the chances are still only remote, that he will be okay without a major operation. But we will have to try it," said Kountouri.

When Zoysa broke down in South Africa, Kountouri referred him to a doctor who expressed surprise at the injury.

"The doctor said he'd never seen it in a cricketer. It is common with soccer players who twist and turn. I was very disappointed for Zoysa because he worked so hard to get there and then he got injured. It was bad luck for him really. There was nothing else you could have really said," said Kountouri.

In Kountouri's view, Zoysa is constantly getting injured because his body is not mature enough at the moment.

Having began his Test career in New Zealand in early 1997, at the age of 18, he was first side-lined by back stress fractures, which according to Kountouri occurs in only people between the ages of 15 and 24. Once the body matures, it does not occur as often. Zoysa has overcome that now.

"Although Zoysa has got taller it does not mean that his bones have become any solid. I think he has stopped growing now and hopefully all the bones are beginning to fuse an become stronger," said Kountouri.

For the last 12 months Zoysa has been going to the gym and has gained a lot of strength. But the things that are breaking are the bones and ligaments, not the muscles.

"The bones and ligaments haven't really hardened to become mature yet. When you reach a certain age about 16-18, everything starts to develop and become mature. He probably hasn't quite got there," Kountouri observed.

Zoysa has been put on a high calcium diet to strengthen his bones by Kountouri and, he is being looked after by a friend who has been very generous.

"He is eating correctly now. He goes to the gym four times a week, rides a bike and does everything that he has been asked of," he said.

"If he does undergo this big operation it might be a blessing for Zoysa. The six or eight months he will probably be out of cricket will probably mean that his body will be ready. He just turned 20 three weeks ago and he's got another 10 to 12 years of cricket in him. So it is not so devastating he doesn't play. It might do him a world of good not to play him and to let his body develop," opinioned Kountouri.

Zoysa is Sri Lanka's player of the future and it is important to take every step possible to ensure that he gets the best medical care.

"It will be only a matter of time before he plays," speculated Kountouri. "And when he does play he is going to be fantastic. In that short spell he bowled in South Africa, he showed how good he is".

Source :: Daily News (https://www.lanka.net)