Paraguay's biggest soccer star is fighting for his life in hospital after being shot in the head at a bar in Mexico City.
Doctors say they have been unable to remove a bullet from the brain of striker Salvador Cabanas, 29.
He was expected to play a leading role in Paraguay's World Cup campaign, in which the team will play New Zealand.
Dr Ernest Martinez said Mr Cabanas was stable but not out of life-threatening danger.
Mr Cabanas and his wife had been about to leave the Bar Bar nightspot, in a well-off neighbourhood of Mexico City, in the early hours of Monday when he was attacked.
Mexico City Attorney General Miguel Angel Mancera said a cleaner had heard an argument between two men in the toilets before a shot was fired.
Cabanas plays for Mexican club America.
