Doctors say it is too soon to discuss the prospects for the Togo
goalkeeper who remains in intensive care after a shooting attack on
the team bus ahead of the African Cup of Nations.
Kodjovi "Dodji" Obilale was shot in the lower back in the
attack, flown to South Africa and taken into surgery almost
immediately at Johannesburg's Netcare Milpark Hospital.
Trauma specialist Elias Degiannis said Sunday that Obilale
was stable, but sedated and on a respirator in the intensive care
unit.
"The operation went smoothly," Degiannis, head of Obilale's
medical team, told reporters.
Degiannis said more will be known about the extent of
Obilale's injuries and future in the next day or two, when the
player is again alert and breathing on his own.
Three people were killed and eight injured in the ambush
attack on the team bus.
Milpark doctors initially said Obilale had been hit by two
bullets from an assault rifle, but said Sunday it was one bullet,
with the second injury caused by a fragment of that bullet. Boffard
said such a bullet is capable of causing extensive injuries.
Ken Boffard, another trauma specialist caring for Obilale,
said the player was alert and able to move his legs before the
surgery, but in great pain.
"It's therefore far too early to be able to assess the extent
of his injuries," Boffard said.
Boffard added the 25-year-old Obilale, who plays for French
club Pontivy, was "extremely fit and has very good resistance. So,
it's very much in his favor that he is an athlete."
The Togo team was ambushed Friday in an attack blamed on
militants fighting for the independence of Cabinda, a region of
Angola cut off from the rest of the country by a strip of Congo.
The Angolan government built a new stadium in Cabinda for
group-stage play in the African Cup.
The attack killed a Togo assistant coach, a team spokesman,
and the Angolan bus driver, according to the team and Togo
government. At least two players had gunshot wounds.
Milpark doctors said they had sent a team to transport
