AB de Villiers has been ruled out of the upcoming ODI series and the Test series in Australia in November, due to having surgery to his elbow.

The Test and ODI skipper will repair a troublesome left elbow impingement injury after failing to respond to rehab and treatment. De Villiers failed a fitness test on Tuesday morning, and will miss the upcoming five-match ODI series, but perhaps more importantly, the three-Test series Down Under.

 ‘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,’ said Team Manager Dr Mohammed Moosajee.

The selectors have opted to keep Rilee Rossouw in the squad as a replacement for De Villiers, which means there’s no space for Temba Bavuma, despite scoring a century on debut on Sunday against Ireland.

Proteas squad: Faf du Plessis (captain), 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.