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Chinese fear Yao injury may ruin medal dreams

Houston Rockets center Yao Ming speaks at a press conference in Houston, Texas, on Tuesday after it was announced he would not play for the rest of the NBA season because of a stress fracture in his left foot. PHOTO: AP

Chinese basketball fans and officials were yesterday desperately hoping that a serious foot injury to star center Yao Ming (姚明) would not ruin China's Olympic medal dreams in August.

The Houston Rockets center has a stress fracture in his left foot that will end his NBA season, his team said on Tuesday, and could even threaten his key role in the Beijing Olympics.

An official at the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) said yesterday that Yao will have surgery on his foot as soon as possible, although the national team already have plans to tackle the Olympics without him.

"A preliminary decision has been made [for Yao] to undergo surgery after a comprehensive analysis by doctors, the team and Yao himself," the CBA said in a statement posted on media portal Sina.com.

CBA deputy head Hu Jia said China already had a contingency plan in place for a Yao-less Games campaign.

"Two years ago, we planned two sets of tactics, including one with Yao and one without him. Now we will focus more on tactics and training without Yao," Hu said.

The Rockets said the six-time NBA all-star was expected to be sidelined for three to four months, and only then would be begin full rehabilitation training.

That would leave Yao with only a month or two to regain match fitness for the Games from Aug. 8 to Aug. 24, a tight schedule for the man who China hopes will lead his team to a basketball medal.

China's Titan sports newspaper quoted Yao as saying he was crushed that his NBA season was over but that he believed he would be able to compete in Beijing.

"His only consolation was that the injury would not cause him to miss out on his dream of playing in the Olympics," it said.

However, Chinese state television quoted Yao as saying that after the injury he had concerns about his participation in the Olympics.

Failure to represent China in the Olympics would be the "biggest loss of my career," he was quoted as saying.

Chinese basketball fans filled blogs with anxious sentiments.

"This is like a lightning bolt," wrote a blogger on the popular Chinese-language portal sina.com. "We now all have to hope that he can be fully recovered before the Olympics."

Yao said in September China's Olympic medal hopes looked dim unless the team shaped up and improved on poor form last year.

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