Dale Steyn is still recovering from his shoulder injury © Associated Press
Dale Steyn has been ruled out of the ODI series against England as he continues to recover from a shoulder injury.
A call will be taken on Steyn’s availability for the T20s at a later stage, with the aim to have him fit for the Australia T20s in March and the World T20 which follows that. Kyle Abbott, who suffered a hamstring niggle in the Centurion Test will also miss the first ODI against England with Morne Morkel and Kagiso Rabada likely to be rested for some of the matches.
“They definitely won’t play all five games,” Russell Domingo, South Africa’s coach, said. “We will look to bring one or two new fast bowlers in.”
That means South Africa are likely to add to their one-day squad, which currently only has Chris Morris as back-up to the bowlers. Wayne Parnell, and Hardus Viljoen, who are playing for the A side in a warm-up match against England on Saturday, could come into contention. Vernon Philander, however, will not.
Philander tore ankle ligaments in the warm-ups for the second Test against India in Bangalore in November and has missed seven Tests as a result. He was expected to recover by mid-January but is still “two to three weeks away from competitive cricket”, according to Mohammed Moosajee, South Africa’s team manager . Philander is unlikely to make an international appearance this season.
Moosajee is more optimistic about Steyn, even though the exact nature of the shoulder injury, which followed a groin strain, has not been discovered. “All initial scans were clear but when symptoms did not improve, we discovered a reaction in the bone itself,” Moosajee said. ‘This is very rare in fast bowlers as it is usually caused by trauma. We are treating it conservatively because he is a fast bowler and we know we have the World T20 coming up.”
Steyn is still receiving treatment in a hyperbaric chamber and is being monitored every two weeks. Moosajee is “confident he will make a full recovery” and that in “six, eight or 10 weeks when he is fit, will be bowling as well as he ever has”. He also emphasised that Steyn’s current niggle is “not career-threatening.”
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo