INQUIRER Sports

SAN ANTONIO -- San Antonio Spurs star guard Manu Ginobili underwent arthroscopic surgery Wednesday in Los Angeles to repair a left ankle condition and will spend the next three weeks on crutches.

The Argentine playmaker had corrective surgery on a posterior impingement of his left ankle with a splint attached.

Ginobili, who returns Thursday to San Antonio, will be re-evaluated in three weeks and then begin rehabilitation ahead of the upcoming National Basketball Association season.

Argentina, the 2004 Olympic champions, settled for a bronze medal last month at the Beijing Olympics, with Ginobili rendered merely a spectator in the medal game due to the injury.

Ginobili suffered the injury against Phoenix in first round of the NBA Western Conference playoffs last season. He was hampered in the NBA playoffs but cleared to play for Argentina in the Olympics, only to reinjure the ankle in a semi-final loss to the US gold medal team of NBA stars on August 22.

Named the NBA's Sixth man of the Year for last season as the league's top reserve player, Ginobili averaged 19.5 points, 4.8 rebounds and 4.5 assists coming off the bench and his long-term absence would be a blow to the Spurs.

San Antonio was defeated by the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference finals.