A day after Bengal cricket’s young turk Avik Chowdhury met with a car accident, doctors attending to him at the Ruby Hospital said his future depends on a critical spine surgery he is expected to undergo soon.

“He has shown a little improvement. But his condition is still critical. His lungs are responding better and he will be under observation for the next few days. Everything depends on the surgery that will be conducted on his spine,” said neurosurgeon Dr L M Tripathy.

Chowdhury, 25, sustained multiple injuries on the spine, hip region, rib cage and lungs after his vehicle rammed a divider and turned turtle near the EM Bypass-Jadavpur connector on Sunday afternoon. The health of five others who were in the car during the accident is said to have improved.

Even as the who’s who of Kolkata sports community thronged the Ruby General Hospital through the day today, medical experts monitoring the young cricketer didn’t sound upbeat.

Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) assistant secretary Naresh Ojha said three vertebral bones — T 5, 6 and 7 — are completely twisted. The cricketer also has a fractured hip bone and a broken rib implanted deep into the lungs.

“It is important to ensure he breathes well enough to survive the surgery. After that, it all depends on the surgery. The untangling of the broken spinal bones can cause anything. Doctors say Chowdhury’s lower abdomen and legs are paralysed,” Ojha said.

Through the day, Chowdhury’s well-wishers and mediapersons camped at the hospital even as he is in a partial comatose state. While former cricket captain Sourav Ganguly and CAB president Jagmohan Dalmiya dropped in at the hospital on Sunday, state Sports Minister Kanti Ganguly, Bengal team captain Laxmi Ratan Shukla and his teammates along with Bengal selector Sambaran Banerjee visited the cricketer today.

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