South Africa pace ace Kagiso Rabada has become the latest international star forced to withdraw from the Indian Premier League after being diagnosed with a stress reaction in his lower back.
The ICC’s top-ranked Test bowler looked to be in career-best form after capturing 23 wickets during his side’s historic 3-1 Test series win against Australia.
But the 23-year-old appeared noticeably down on pace in the final innings at the Wanderers, with lower-back tightness revealed to have been the cause for his lack of usual venom.
Commenting on Rabada’s injury, Proteas team manager, Dr Mohammed Moosajee said: “Kagiso has been diagnosed with a lower back stress reaction which will rule him out of cricket action for up to three months.”
“He will need a month’s break from all physical activity before commencing with a rehabilitation programme to get him ready for the series against Sri Lanka in July.”
Rabada was set to combine with express New Zealand quick Trent Boult for the Daredevils in IPL 11 under the coaching of former Australian captain Ricky Ponting.
He will instead be racing to recover in time for the Proteas’ away series against Sri Lanka in July, which includes two Tests, five ODIs and one T20I match.
Rabada bowled a combined 140.5 overs across the four Test-series against Australia, the second-most of any South African bowler behind spinner Keshav Maharaj (161.2).
When asked about his workload following his side’s day five win in Johannesburg, he said: “To be honest right now I don’t have answers. It’s something I have to think about. I have to have some time off and plan moving forward.”
“But it is very important, because you ultimately want to play for 10-15 years, and you’re going to have to have some sort of plan… you can’t just drift through it.
“I guess [overbowling] is a red flag, you don’t want that stuff, you want to prevent things like that.
“That’s one of the challenges you are faced with as a player, that everything goes as planned, as you would like it to go.”
Rabada’s withdrawal from the IPL follows that of Australian quick Mitchell Starc, who was diagnosed with a tibial bone stress reaction in his right leg after the third Test in Cape Town.
