China's All-Star center Yao Ming believes he will be fit for the Beijing Olympics despite facing an operation on a fractured foot, his Chinese agent said on Sunday.
Yao is expected to need three or four months' rest after an operation which China's state broadcaster said he would undergo in Houston on Monday. That would leave around two months to prepare for the Games which open on August 8.
"He (Yao) believes those two months are enough time to recover," his agent Zhang Mingji said in an interview with the Beijing News.
"I believe that by the Olympics, Yao Ming will have recovered 100 percent," Zhang added.
China's Olympic basketball medal hopes are pinned on Yao, who had averaged 22 points and 10.8 rebounds for the Houston Rockets before his NBA season was cut short.
Zhang dismissed suggestions that Yao's injury was a result of playing too many matches.
"His bone fracture is not because he was played too much, it's a problem that arose because of the structure of his foot," Zhang said, explaining that Yao had high arches.
The 27-year-old is China's most popular sportsman and is a leading candidate to fulfil the prestigious role of lighting the cauldron at the Games' opening.
Source: China Daily/Agencies
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