South African skipper and batting talisman AB de Villiers has been ruled out of the home One-Day International and away Test series against Australia with an elbow injury, the country's cricket board confirmed. The Proteas are scheduled to play five ODIs at home and three Test matches in and against Australia over the next two months.
De Villiers has been struggling with injury this year and sat out of the two Tests South Africa played against New Zealand in August. He also missed the one-off ODI against Ireland last week. Faf du Plessis skippered South Africa during De Villiers's absence. The 32-year-old is slated to undergo surgery next week.
"AB has failed to come through his fitness test this morning. 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," said Mohammad Moosajee, the South African team manager. "With that in mind, we are scheduling surgery early next week and the target is to hopefully have him back for the Sri Lankan home series over the Christmas period."
Cricket South Africa also confirmed that Rilee Rossouw has been retained as cover for the ODI series against Australia, which begins on September 30 at Centurion.
