BEIJING, July 19: Doctors at a Beijing hospital were unable to save the sight in Guinea international Ousmane Bangoura's right eye after he was kicked in the face in a Chinese club match, a Chinese newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The 26-year-old midfielder for China Super League club Shenyang Ginde suffered a ruptured eyeball in a clash with Qingdao Zhongneng's Lu Gang earlier in the month.

After a previous operation in Shenyang was unsuccessful, Bangoura was transferred to a Beijing hospital where doctors were able to save his eye after a three-hour operation, but not his vision, the Beijing News said.

Bangoura joined Shenyang from Belgium's Charleroi in April after playing a leading role in Guinea's march to the quarter-finals of the African Nations Cup earlier this year.

Lu Gang expressed regret for Bangoura's loss in comments carried by Xinhua news agency on Wednesday.

“I would like to say sorry to him a million times. I dare not ask him to forgive me because I cannot forgive myself in the first place, but I want to do something to redeem my mistake,” he said, adding that he hoped to organise a charity match for

Bangoura and would compensate him “even without a court order.”

With his career effectively over, Chinese media have reported that Bangoura's family are preparing a civil suit against Lu, Xinhua said.

Bangoura's medical treatment had been covered by Shenyang Ginde, the paper said, but future compensation would need to be negotiated between the two parties.

“We never wanted to see this happen,” the paper quoted a club official as saying.

“We haven't properly considered the next step,” he said.—Reuters