Sachin Tendulkar after his dismissal on Wednesday

Mumbai: “I know surgery is necessary and I’ve accepted that reality... I’m okay... I’m relaxed,” Sachin Tendulkar told The Telegraph on Wednesday, the day after the Board revealed his right shoulder would be operated upon in London.

Speaking on the way to his room at the Taj, he added: “While the announcement was made yesterday, I’d been (mentally) preparing myself for the last couple of days... As in the past, I’m strictly being guided by medical opinion.”

Sachin, it may be recalled, was on holiday in the UK last summer when he underwent surgery on the left elbow. “I got it done because it had to be... The situation isn’t any different this time,” he pointed out.

That surgery kept Sachin off competitive cricket for four-and-half months. This time, he won’t be taking guard for (as of now) eight weeks after coming out of the operation theatre.

Asked whether he’d spoken to Dr Andrew Wallace, who will again be wielding the scalpel, Sachin replied: “No... The physio (John Gloster) has been interacting with him... I’ve only seen the scans...”

Sachin and wife Anjali intend leaving for London quietly. “If the world gets to know, then I’m going to have a problem controlling things... It’s just a surgery and I should be allowed to have that without any (Media) attention,” he said.

According to the fitness report presented to the Board by Gloster, Sachin requires surgery for a “posterior labrum tear of the right shoulder with an associated para-labral cyst.” That the cyst is very close to a “major nerve” is cause for more concern.

Meanwhile, Sachin remarked he wasn’t even aware that he was being booed (by a section of the Wankhede crowd) after falling cheaply in the first innings of the Test which ended in a huge win for England.

“Honestly, I had no idea... One doesn’t think of the crowd either while going out to bat or on getting out... Others told me about the booing... That didn’t affect me and, in any case, I’ve been around for a number of years,” he signed off, peparing to clear his room and head home.

At the international level, the number of years is 16-plus.