Boucher may not lose vision in injured eye

Mark Boucher, the veteran South Africa wicketkeeper, who announced his retirement last week after an eye injury cut short his tour of England, has progressed well after his eye surgery, according to his doctors in South Africa. However he will have to undergo more exploratory surgery and months of elaborate procedures to determine the extent of damage.

Shuaib Manjra, a Cape Town-based eye surgeon, who is heading Boucher's medical team, revealed that there was no damage to the retina, hence ruling out complete loss of vision. "There's no obvious detachment of the retina, which is very positive," said Dr Manjra to Sunday Times. "But, clearly, we can't say it's 100%, because we still need to go in physically and have a look at it."

Manjra said considerable progress since the surgery was first performed as Boucher was able to recognise hand movements and identify the direction of light in the injured eye. However he was perplexed to see the amount of damage done by the bail, which hit his eye after the stumps were dislodged.

"I spoke to Bouch and he's still convinced that the ball hit him," the doctor said. "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."

"He has been sleeping a lot and watching a lot of the Tour de France," said Donne Commins, Boucher's agent. "But he's also spent time reading some of his messages of support on Twitter and other forums, and I am certain they have kept him positive."