Johannesburg, Sep 27: South Africa have been dealt a cruel blow when AB de Villiers, the One-Day International (ODI) captain, failed a fitness test on Tuesday morning (September 27), ahead of the upcoming five-match series against Australia. The star South African batsman had complained about the elbow injury which kept him out of the recently concluded Tests against New Zealand.
De Villiers was named in the preliminary squad for the one-off ODI against Ireland, which was played on September 25 in Benoni, but was later granted additional days of rest before the five-match ODI series against Australia to recuperate su
fficiently from an elbow injury. Cricket South Africa (CSA) have now confirmed that the captain will miss the upcoming ODIs against Australia, as well as the three-match away Test series against the same opposition, starting on November 3 in Perth.
De Villiers is expected to undergo a surgery next week as he seeks to repair the troublesome left elbow – which failed to respond to treatment as well as rehabilitation.
South Africa’s team manager, Dr Mohammed Moosajee said: “AB de Villiers is still symptomatic and has not recovered from his elbow impingement injury which makes surgery the only long-term solution. We have tried the conservative management of rest, physio, rehab and cortisone infiltration into the elbow, but that has not yielded the results that we would have liked. He will have surgery to the elbow early next week and the target is to hopefully have him back for the Sri Lankan home series over the Christmas period.”