JOHANNESBURG: South African captain and star batsman A.B. de Villiers failed a fitness Test on Tuesday and will undergo elbow surgery which will force him to miss entire home and away series against Australia.

Cricket South Africa announced that a left elbow impingement injury had failed to respond to rehabilitation and treatment, ruling de Villiers out of a five-match ODI series against Australia, starting on Friday, as well as the three-match Test tour of Australia in November.

It is hoped he will be fit for a home series against Sri Lanka, starting on Dec 26.

Proteas team manager Dr Mohammed Moosajee said: “A.B. is still symptomatic and has not recovered, 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.”

De Villiers has already missed a Test series against New Zealand last month and last Sunday’s ODI against Ireland.

Faf du Plessis will captain the side in the ODIs against Australia and will almost certainly lead the side in the Test matches in Australia.

Rilee Rossouw will replace de Villiers for the ODIs.

Published in Dawn September 28th, 2016

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