Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been discharged from a Mumbai hospital following a successful surgery on his left knee on Thursday.
“Yes, Dhoni had a surgery this morning. He is doing fine and the procedure has been successful. I’m not aware of the details though. He should be in a position to begin his rehabilitation soon,” Chennai Super Kings CEO Kasi Viswanathan confirmed to The Telegraph.
Dr Dinshaw Pardiwala, head of the Centre for Sports Medicine at Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital and Medical Research Institute in Mumbai, and his team of doctors performed the arthroscopic surgery on Dhoni.
Having spent a few hours at the hospital for observation, Dhoni was discharged by the evening. He is expected to stay in Mumbai for a few more days and will visit the hospital for regular checkups. The rehabilitation process is likely to begin in less than three months.
Dhoni was admitted on Wednesday after visiting the hospital for consultation. He was accompanied by wife Sakshi and CSK team doctor Dr Madhu Thottappil.
Dr Pardiwala recently performed surgery on India wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant, who was injured in a car accident last December. Pant’s recovery has been better than expected and he has been undergoing physiotherapy sessions at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore.
Dhoni promised to his fans to come back next year and play one final season, knee permitting, after winning the fifth IPL title for CSK in the early hours of Tuesday.
He played all 16 matches for CSK despite a troublesome knee and was often seen applying an ice pack or wearing a brace for relief. He scored 104 runs at a strike-rate of 182.45.
“Circumstantially, it’s the best time to announce retirement.” Dhoni had said after the final. “The easy thing for me to say is thank you and retire. But the hard thing to do is to work hard for nine months and try to play one more IPL season. The body has to hold up. But the amount of love I have received from CSK fans, it would be a gift for them to play one more season.”