BEIJING(AP) Houston Rockets All-Star center Yao Ming will have to wait up to a week before he knows whether he will need surgery on his broken left foot.
The playing future of the 7-foot-6 Yao is in question amid reports from the team doctor that the hairline fracture in his foot could keep him out all of next season, and potentially end his career.
``It hasn't been decided yet,'' Yao's agent, Eric Zhang, told The Associated Press on Friday. ``He is still in the process of group consultations of doctors holding different opinions and different plans. The result of the consultations is due within a week.''
Before that there is no way of telling whether surgery will be performed, Zhang said.
``We are still in the information gathering period,'' he said.
Yao sustained a hairline fracture of the tarsal navicular bone late in a May 8 playoff game against the Los Angeles Lakers. The Rockets said last week that the injury has not healed and he was out indefinitely.
Yao played in 77 regular-season games in 2008-09, his most injury-free year since 2004-05, when he played in 80. Before last season, Yao missed chunks of the previous three seasons with leg and foot injuries.
In 2006-07, Yao missed 32 games after breaking his right leg. He sustained a stress fracture in his left foot in 2007-08, underwent surgery and sat out 26 games.
Yao is due to make more than $16 million next season, with a player option for 2010-11 that would pay him more than $17 million.
