"Blade Runner" Pistorius making good recovery
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's double amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius is expected to make a full recovery after undergoing surgery for facial injuries sustained in a boating accident, his manager Peet van Zyl told Reuters.
Pistorius, 22, was flung from the speedboat he was steering on the Vaal River south of Johannesburg on Saturday night, local media reports said.
"Oscar was in surgery for most of the afternoon to fix fractures in his jaw and nose region. He was then transferred to the ICU for normal post-operative observation. The doctors are quite happy with how the operation went and he is expected to make a full recovery," Van Zyl told Reuters on Sunday.
"We will obviously wait for medical advice, but Oscar should still be able to fulfill his international commitments like the Paralympic World Cup."
Pistorius, who had both legs removed between the knee and ankle as a baby, is nicknamed 'Blade Runner' because of the prosthetic legs that enable him to sprint.
He began competing against able-bodied athletes in 2007 but the governing IAAF banned him after ruling that his artificial limbs gave him an unfair advantage.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport lifted the ban in May last year and although he missed out on qualification for the Olympics, he won three gold medals in the Beijing Paralympics.
(Reporting by Ken Borland; Editing by Justin Palmer)
