Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili will need a month's recovery for a broken arm suffered while bicycling in Turkey, the presidential administration said Wednesday.
Saakashvili was returning home to Tbilisi on Wednesday after spending two days in a Istanbul hospital, where he underwent an operation for a complex shoulder injury, it said.
"Doctors had to insert metal plates to strengthen three breaks in the President's shoulder, and he also had 40 stitches," it said in a statement carried by Interfax.
A spokesman said that Saakashvili had suffered the break while going on a daily bike ride during a working visit to Turkey.
"The president suffered a broken arm in three places, for which he underwent an operation on Sunday night," he told Interfax. "Saakashvili was anesthetized for a number of hours, and the operation was carried out by a Turkish surgeon, professor Mehmet Demirhan."
He said that Saakashvili had taken part in a meeting in Ankara on Tuesday after being released from the hospital and was returning home to Tbilisi. Doctors have said that the full healing process is likely to take a month.
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