COLOMBO, Aug 11: A shoulder injury to Muttiah Muralitharan has the Sri Lankan team management worried after the ace off-spinner was forced to miss the second Test against South Africa on Wednesday.

"The extent of the injury is not known yet," manager Ajit Jayasekara said. "There is some fluid accumulation in his bowling shoulder for which some tests have been conducted and we are in consultation with doctors both here and in Australia about his condition," he said.

Muralitharan, 32, who holds the world Test bowling record of 532 wickets, struggled to get his side the breakthroughs expected of him in the opening Test in Galle which ended in a draw.

"He was bowling in some sort of pain in Galle and we did not want to take a chance here and aggravate his injury," said Jayasekara. "We don't even know whether a surgery will be needed or not."

Sri Lanka's forthcoming engagements include a five-match one-day series against South Africa after the ongoing Test, the ICC Champions Trophy in England next month and a Test and one-day tour of Pakistan in October.

"If a surgery is required, we will have to plan the timing well as we have a busy season ahead," said Jayasekara. Team physio Christopher James Clark said the injury would not necessarily take a long time to heal.

"The state of fluid accumulation on the nerves is something that takes a long time to happen. So it is not something that occured overnight or that it would have made a difference if he had not played in Galle," he said. "The doctors actually said he could play today but we decided not to play him, keeping our long-term interests in mind." -AFP