MEXICO CITY - Paraguay's top footballer Salvador Cabanas was in a critical but stable condition yesterday after surgery in which doctors failed to remove a bullet lodged in his skull.

MEXICO CITY - Paraguay's top footballer Salvador Cabanas was in a critical but stable condition yesterday after surgery in which doctors failed to remove a bullet lodged in his skull.

Dr Ernesto Martinez, who was part of the surgical team, could not say that the striker was out of danger, but called his condition stable.

Cabanas, expected to lead Paraguay in the World Cup, was shot in a pre-dawn attack on Monday at Bar Bar, a popular nightspot in a well-off Mexico City neighbourhood.

"We cannot guarantee that his life is out of danger," Martinez said. "Injuries like this are unpredictable."

Mexico City attorney-general Miguel Angel Mancera said that robbery did not appear to be the motive in the attack on the forward, who plays for Mexico City club America.

"Nothing was taken," he said. - Sapa-AP