President Obama gets 12 stitches in his lip after basketball injury

President Barack Obama had to get 12 stitches in his lip after getting dealt a blow from an opponent's elbow during a basketball game Friday morning, White House officials said.

"After being inadvertently hit with an opposing player's elbow in the lip while playing basketball with friends and family, the president received 12 stitches today administered by the White House medical unit," press secretary Robert Gibbs said in a statement, Pittsburgh Post Gazette reports.

Obama received the stitches under local anesthesia in the doctor's office on the ground floor of the White House after he returned home from the game at Fort McNair, a military base where he often plays.

The White House at first did not identify the person who went up for a shot and elbowed Obama, who was playing defense. But later Friday, administration officials released a statement from Rey Decerega, the director of programs for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, who injured Obama in the last of five five-on-five games, according to Washington Post.