JOHANNESBURG: The doctor treating former South Africa wicketkeeper Mark Boucher says he could regain some vision in his left eye and play again.

Shuaib Manjra told the Sunday Times tests had not shown any detachment of the retina after the player was hit by a bail last Monday in a freak accident during a warm-up match for a three-Test series in England.

“There is no obvious detachment of the retina, which is very positive,”said Manjra, “but, clearly, we cannot say it's 100% because we still need to go in physically and have a look.”

Manjra said Boucher, 35, would need several more procedures and added that medics had been astonished at the level of damage inflicted when the bail was dislodged by an Imran Tahir delivery.

“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.”

A spokeswoman for Boucher, whose Test career spanned 15 years, said he been sleeping a lot, watching the Tour de France cycle race and reading messages of support.