Mark Boucher

Calcutta: Former South Africa wicket-keeper Mark Boucher underwent eye surgery at a Cape Town Clinic on Thursday morning and, in what can termed as a piece of good news, “the outcome looks very positive and the surgeon is pleased with the procedure.”

A Cricket South Africa media release informed about Boucher’s surgery and also issued a brief report form his medical team.

According to the report, the surgery went well and took about three hours. “There were no complications, no bleeding and nothing else unexpected. The important parts of the retina were intact, confirming previous findings,” the report said.

It further added: “The blood which accumulated due to the trauma was removed.”

That Boucher can regain sight in his injured left eye was reported a few days back as his surgeon, Shuaib Manjra, was quoted as saying by a British daily that there’s “no obvious detachment of the retina which is very positive.”

According to the report in the daily, Boucher could recognise hand movements and identify the direction of light in the injured eye. However, that he would still have to undergo more exploratory surgery and months of other procedures to determine the exact severity of the damage and make a recovery was made clear.

Boucher retired from international cricket after the freak eye injury he sustained on the opening day a tour match against Somerset, on July 9. The most successful Test ’keeper was afraid that he would be facing an “uncertain recovery.”

Boucher had to leave the field at the end of the 46th over of Somerset’s innings when a googly from Imran Tahir hit the stumps and a dislodged bail struck the ’keeper in the left eye. He was diagnosed with a lacerated eyeball.

Manjra had said that medics had been astonished at the level of damage inflicted by the bail.

“The amount of damage is not commensurate with simply a bail hitting him, unless there was a freak angle (or) a freak speed and it hit him in a vulnerable spot - in other words, if everything just went wrong for him on that day.”

South Africa’s ongoing tour of England was anyhow set to be his final national duty and the Lord’s Test would have been his 150th appearance. Boucher, interestingly, will end on 999 International dismissals, which is a record.