Mahendra Singh Dhoni had to undergo surgery on the left knee in a Mumbai hospital on Thursday.
The Chennai Super Kings (CSK) captain flew to Mumbai from Ahmedabad after guiding his troops to their fifth Indian Premier League (IPL) trophy to consult sports orthopaedic surgeon Dr Dinshaw Pardiwala, who is also on the BCCI medical panel.
"Yes, Dhoni has had a successful knee surgery at the Kokilaben Hospital in Mumbai on Thursday. He is doing fine and will be discharged in a day or two. He would be resting for a few days before his extensive rehabilitation starts. It is now expected that he would have enough time to get fit to play in the next IPL," a source close to the CSK management told PTI.
After the final, Dhoni had stated that he would love to return for the 2024 IPL, provided his body was fit. He played the entire 2023 IPL with strapping on his left knee but hardly looked ill at ease while keeping wickets.
"If you circumstantially see, it's the best time to announce retirement. The easy thing for me to say is thank you and retire. 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."
He added, "The way they've shown their love and emotion, it's something I need to do for them. It's the last part of my career. It started over here and full house was chanting my name. It was the same in Chennai, but it will be good to come back and play in whatever way I can."
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Are CSK thinking about life after Dhoni?
When CSK CEO Kasi Viswanathan was asked about Dhoni's retirement and a potential free-up of INR 15 Crore in CSK's purse in the mini-auction ahead of the 2024 season, he brushed aside those talks.
He told PTI, “Frankly, we are not even thinking along those lines as we have not reached that stage”, said Viswanathan. He added that the final decision would be in the hands of Dhoni, and the CSK management will act accordingly.
Viswanathan also expressed his gratitude towards Dhoni in the interview. “In our franchise, the skipper keeps everything uncomplicated. The key has been to keep things simple and explain to every player what is expected of them”.
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