LAHORE, April 28: Speedster Shoaib Akhtar has claimed that injury to his 11th rib bone was detected after a scan but the claim, however, was not endorsed by the Pakistan Cricket Board's medical commission.
"I had a bone scan and its report detected the bone still have swelling," Shoaib said after appearing before the commission at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) on Wednesday. "Yes, we have examined the scan report but we can't endorse his statement given to the press. We will submit our recommendations only to the PCB," said chairman medical commission Dr Abdul Wajid after the proceedings.
The commission would finalize its recommendations within four days and hand them over to the PCB chairman. The commission was formed to determine whether Shoaib's injury in the third Test against India was genuine, and examine the injuries of Moin Khan, Umar Gul, Abdul Razzaq and Shabbir Ahmed which prevented them from playing in the last two Tests of the Indian series.
Shoaib said he always played for Pakistan and he did not deliberately declare himself unfit. The paceman, who did not bowl a ball on the third day of the final Test in Rawalpindi, triggered controversy by batting the following day and scoring a rapid 28.
"Bowling with a severe injury is hard but you can bat. I took double dose of pain-killers which helped me bat on the fourth day," he added. The flambouyant pacer said he fell down after delivering a ball which injured his hand and his elbow struck the rib, aggravating the injury.
He said he would take rest for two more weeks and afterwards would start playing for English county side Durham. When asked about disappointing performance against India, Shoaib said as a human being he did his best but could not achieve the desired results.
He said he and every member of the team played for the honour of the country and vehemently denied that he had differences with captain Inzamamul Haq. Shoaib said he always received guidance from former skipper Imran Khan.
Meanwhile, Dr Wajid said the commission also examined Moin, Umar and Razzaq on Wednesday. Shabbir was unavailable since he is in England. The commission's proceedings started after a 75-minute delay because Dr Wajid and Moin arrived at 10:15 am from Karachi.
Shoaib went to Shaukat Khanum Hospital with Dr Sohail Salim for a bone scan at 9:30am. Razzaq arrived at the NCA around 11:35 am and was examined by the commission for half an hour. The commission had a two-hour break from 2 pm for Shoaib's reports from Shaukat Khanum Hospital. After receiving the reports, Shoaib appeared before the commission.
Moin later said that he was fully fit from groin injury and had startedhis training and stated that he was disappointed for not playing the last two Tests against India due to groin problem.
Razzaq, meanwhile, said he was still recovering from a side strain because of which he was forced out of the final two Tests against India. Razzaq said that 70 per cent of his injury had healed and added that he would start training from next week.
