Paraguay striker Salvador Cabanas shot in the head

Only days after Sunderland manager Steve Bruce expressed his wish to bring Paraguay striker Salvador Cabanas to Tyneside, the 29-year is in a critical condition after being shot in the head in a Mexico City bar.

Cabanas, who plays for Club America in Mexico, was expected to feature for his country in the summer World Cup after scoring six goals in helping Paraguay qualify for the tournament.

Voted the South American player of the year in 2007, Cabanas has been in prolific form this season for Club America, scoring 18 goals in 24 goals, a strike-rate that had come to the attention of Bruce. "I've monitored Cabanas," said the Sunderland manager earlier this month. "He's a fantastic player... somebody who would be of interest to us."

Mexico City's attorney general, Miguel Angel Mancera, told television reporters: "According to an initial report it was a shot from a firearm with a frontal entry point and without exit. The player is conscious but he has a heart problem which they're trying to stabilise."

The Los Angeles Times reports that Cabanas has undergone seven hours of emergency surgery but that the medical team was unable to remove the bullet that was lodged in the back of his brain.

Dr Ernesto Martinez, who performed the surgery, said: "We would do more damage if we tried to extract it. We cannot assure you that he is out of danger. He is young and healthy. That helps."

The exact events surrounding the shooting remain unclear. A number of people were questioned, including the player's brother-in-law and a security guard, and two persons have been detained. But eye-witnesses allege Cabanas was shot in the washrooms of the Big Bar, a popular nightspot in a smart quarter of Mexico City, and that it was an unprovoked attack.

The president of Club America, Michel Bauer, spoke to Cabanas's wife who was with him at the time of the incident. "They wanted to assault him," said Bauer. "I can confirm that that is what his wife has said - that it was an assault. There was no shoot-out nor any quarrel. He arrived conscious and responded well to the questions they asked him as he was going into hospital. It's a key point that can be encouraging, but until further notice we cannot speculate on anything at all."

The shooting has grim overtones of the murder of Colombian defender Andres Esobar, shortly after he had returned to Colombia from the 1994 World Cup. No clear motive was ever established for his shooting outside a bar, though some attributed his death to the own goal he'd scored in the tournament in the 2-1 defeat to the USA. ·