r MEXICO CITY (AP) -Paraguayan soccer star Salvador Cabanas is eating and sitting in an armchair, just over a week after being shot in the head at point-blank range.
Doctors said Wednesday the 29-year-old still was in critical condition and has blood in the brain area that needs to be drained. Doctors are not planing to remove the bullet lodged in Cabanas' skull.
Among the top forwards in Latin America, Cabanas was shot just before dawn in a bat on Jan. 25. He's the top player for Mexico City's Club America and was expected to lead Paraguay in this year's World Cup.
``Everything is going well,'' Dr. Ernesto Martinez said. ``We have to protect him, but he's speaking and he obeys what we tell him with no problem.''
Martinez called bullet in Cabanas' skull a small piece of metal that is not harmful. He said many people live normal lives with implanted metal plates or screws.
``We could do more damage if we tried to remove it,'' he said. ``But where it's located it doesn't do a bit of harm.''
Juan Carlos Silva, a teammate of Cabanas on Club America, was shot Monday night in Mexico City in a failed attempt to steal his vehicle. Silva's single gunshot to the buttocks is not life-threatening.
The 21-year-old Silva told reporters Wednesday that he tried to resist the robbery attempt.
``God protected me, and thank goodness there wasn't another shot,'' he said. ``Now that I think about it, I took a big risk.''
The shootings do not appear to be related.
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AP Sports Writer Stephen Wade contributed to this report.
