Tendulkar leaves for London for surgery

Sachin Tendulkar today left for London to undergo a surgery on his shoulder. Tendulkar, accompanied by his doctor wife Anjali, is expected to go under the surgeon's knife on Monday.

The operation, which will rule him out of action for at least two months, would be conducted by noted surgeon Dr. Andrew Wallace. Tendulkar was diagnosed with a posterior labrum tear of the right shoulder during the third cricket Test against England this week, subsequently ruling him out of the seven-match one-day series against Andrew Flintoff's men which begins on March 28.

Indian team's physiotherapist John Gloster said Tendulkar had been experiencing problems in throwing since the Test series against Sri Lanka last December. The problem had aggravated of late, necessitating the surgery.

Tendulkar, who holds the record for scoring the maximum number of centuries in Tests (35) and one-dayers (39), was earlier sidelined for six months after undergoing surgery for tennis elbow in May 2005. It was Dr. Wallace who had operated on Tendulkar's tennis elbow. Tendulkar could also miss the early part of the tour of West Indies, starting on May 18, as it would take at least eight weeks for him to recuperate.