Cricket-Yuvraj Singh's cancer is curable - doctor

NEW DELHI Feb 6 (Reuters) - Yuvraj Singh's cancer is curable and the hard-hitting Indian batsman is likely to be back in training in May, a New Delhi oncologist said on Monday.

The 30-year-old was told last year that he had a golf ball-sized non-malignant tumour but that diagnosis was changed at the weekend to a condition called "mediastinal seminoma".

"Yuvraj Singh has been diagnosed with cancer and is currently undergoing chemotherapy in the United States," Dr Nitesh Rohatgi of the Max Cancer Centre told reporters.

"We are very lucky this is a seminoma. These are mostly curable with chemotherapy and ... unlikely to affect Yuvraj's career.

"His doctors in the U.S., working in collaboration with us, are confident of his recovery. Most likely Yuvraj ... will be back on the field by the first week of May."

One of the cleanest strikers of a cricket ball, the middle-order batsman is not a regular member of India's test team but is an automatic choice in their limited-over sides.

Yuvraj was instrumental in India's 2007 World Twenty20 victory in South Africa and hit England fast bowler Stuart Broad for six sixes in an over in one match.

He was also named player of the tournament in India's successful 50-over World Cup campaign on home soil in February, March and April last year.

Yograj Singh, the cricketer's father, said his son was responding well to treatment.

Last month Yuvraj said on his Twitter account he was reading Lance Armstrong's 2000 autobiography 'It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life'.

"I'm sure it will motivate me and pull me through," the Indian said.

American cyclist Armstrong is one of sport's best-known cancer survivors.

The latest news on Yuvraj has triggered a wave of sympathy across cricket-crazy India with the government leading the messages for a speedy recovery.

(Editing by Tony Jimenez. To comment on this story: email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)

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