Minnaar's Long Awaited Shoulder Operation Completed Successfully Today

After a season plagued by constant shoulder dislocations and complicated further by a broken scapula at the World Championships in Scotland, Greg Minnaar went under the knife today to rectify his problematic left shoulder. Dr Mark Ferguson from the South African Sports Clinic declared after the operation that he is very confident with the results. What was supposed to be a routine 1h 30min operation to repair cartilage damage and carry out the re-attachment of tendons in the front of the shoulder, turned out to be an operation of more than two and half hours. The damage caused by Minnaar's crash at Fort William had rendered the rear cartilage of the shoulder so badly damaged that it too had to be repaired and a tendon was re-attached using four screws. Following the operation a rather subdued Greg commented: "Although right now there is a lot of pain and discomfort, my main focus is to get home and start a full and speedy recovery." The recovery period is estimated to be between 8 to 10 weeks. www.23degrees-sports.com