Elbow injury rules AB de Villiers out of Australia tour

South African captain AB de Villiers is set to undergo a surgery on his injured elbow and has been ruled out of the upcoming One-Day International series and the away Test series against Australia.

De Villiers is suffering from a persistent elbow injury and failed a fitness test conducted on 27th September as revealed by the Proteas team manager Mohammad Moosajee.

“AB has failed to come through his fitness test this morning,” Moosajee said.

“Although the physio strapped his elbow while he was batting and he did have some relief with some shots, the elbow pain has not gone away completely.”

Moosajee further revealed that after the initial diagnosis of the injury, de Villiers was given time to recover and underwent rehabilitation under a physiotherapist.

However, despite giving an additional week to recover, de Villiers continued to experience pain despite strapping the elbow during the fitness test.

Acknowledging that de Villiers will be out for a period of eight to 10 weeks after the surgery, Moosajee hoped that the 32-year-old will be fit in time for the series against Sri Lanka in December.

“When the initial injury was discovered, the issue was that he was having impingement with certain shots.

“With that in mind, we advocated a period of rest, he has seen the physiotherapist for treatment, he received some bio-kinetics and rehab, and also saw an elbow specialist for the infiltration of cortisone.

“In most cases, you get resolving of symptoms within six weeks.

“This did not take place, so we gave him an extra week to see if it would recover.

“This morning, he had a couple of throwdowns. The elbow was strapped and he had some symptom relief.

“He probably felt about 80% better than without the strapping.

“But knowing AB, the complete cricketer that he is, he wants to make sure none of his shots are restricted.

“With that in mind, we decided on surgery and to give him adequate time to recover so he doesn’t hamper his career going forward.

“The recovery is anything between eight to ten weeks and we are hopeful he will recover for the Sri Lanka series in December.”

Moosajee also hinted that Faf du Plessis will take over as captain for the tour of Australia in place of the injured de Villiers.

“Faf has led the team, he will do the same in the ODI series against Australia,” Moosajee said.
“And I have no doubt he will carry on for another series.”

The South African selectors have named Rilee Rossouw in the updated squad for the Australia ODI series, which will get underway on 30th September in Centurion.

South Africa squad for Australia ODIs

Faf du Plessis (capt), Kyle Abbott, Hashim Amla, Farhaan Behardien, Quinton de Kock, JP Duminy, Imran Tahir, David Miller, Wayne Parnell, Aaron Phangiso, Andile Phehlukwayo, Kagiso Rabada, Rilee Rossouw, Tabraiz Shamsi, Dale Steyn

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