Paraguay football star Salvador Cabanas is eating and sitting in an
armchair, continuing a remarkable recovery after being shot in the
head at point-blank range just over a week ago.
Despite the progress, doctors said on Wednesday that Cabanas,
29, was still in critical condition and still has blood in the
brain area that needs to be drained. Doctors have also said the
bullet lodged in Cabanas' skull will remain there with no further
attempt to remove it.
Cabanas, one of the best strikers in Latin America, was shot
in the head just before dawn on Jan. 25 in a bar in a prosperous
area on the south side of Mexico City. He's the top player for
Mexico City's Club America and was expected to lead Paraguay when
the World Cup opens on June 11 in South Africa.
"Everything is going well," said Dr. Ernesto Martinez, who
was part of a surgical team that decided against trying to remove
the bullet, a procedure they called too risky. "We have to protect
him, but he's speaking and he obeys what we tell him with no
problem."
Martinez said the bullet in Cabanas' skull would remain
there, calling it a small piece of metal that was not harmful. He
said many people live normal lives with implanted metal plates or
screws.
"The bullet won't be taken out," Martinez said. "We could do
more damage if we tried to remove it. But where it's located it
doesn't do a bit of harm. The bullet doesn't have to come out, not
even for legal reasons or anything."
The attack on Cabanas took place just before dawn and appears
to have grown out of an argument between Cabanas and the main
suspect in the shooting, Jose Jorge Balderas Garza. He remains at
large with police or legal officials saying little about progress
to locate him.
Widespread reports have suggested Balderas Garza told Cabanas
he had not been scoring enough goals for America. The point-blank
shooting took place moments later in the bar's toilet.
Juan Carlos Silva, a teammate of Cabanas on Club America, was
shot on Monday night in Mexico City in a failed attempt to steal
his vehicle. Silva's single gunshot to the buttocks was not
life-threatening.
Silva, 21, told reporters on Wednesday that he tried to
resist the robbery attempt, which was a mistake.
"God protected me, and thank goodness there wasn't another
shot," he said. "Now that I think about it, I took a big risk."
There is no suggestion the two shootings are related.
