Injured Steyn ruled out of Test series

South Africa suffered a major setback on the second day of the first Test with Dale Steyn being ruled out of the remainder of the three-Test series against India after the senior paceman damaged tissue in his landing foot.

The incident happened on the third ball of his 18th over and Steyn, who hastened the end of India's innings with figures of 2/51, didn't return to bowl again on the day. His recovery period from his latest injury has been pegged between four and six weeks. This was the first Test for the bowler in over 14 months.

"As we all know that during Dale's 18th over, during his delivery stride, he unfortunately landed awkwardly in the footholes," announced Mohammad Moosajee, manager of the South African team.

"This caused a significant strain to the foot, leading to tissue damage on the un derside of the foot in the heel area.

"He is unlikely to bowl in this Test match, because the recovery period for this could be anything from four to six weeks which means he could be out for the series. But what we will do is get one of the leading ankle surgeons to have a look at him tomorrow to give us an opinion," he said.

Moosajee also clarified that the injury was not related to workload or not match-ready. "I think it's important to note though that this unfortunate injury was freakish because of the way his foot landed in the footholes.

"It's in no way related to his bowling loads or not being match ready."

Asked if Steyn can bat in case wickets fall rapidly tomorrow, Moosajee said: "If need be, and he needs to hold up one end who knows? I can't make a call on that as yet. Once we see the specialist we might get an opinion on that. At the moment it's quite tender and it's extremely uncomfortable to run.

"Obviously with some anti inflammatories and rest overnight, who knows how he might turn up tomorrow. But at this stage it's unlikely that he will be able to run. In fact, we'd probably like him to be non-weight bearing."

Steyn's pace-bowling mate Kagiso Rabada wasn't too perturbed by Steyn's unavailability as the hosts still had three more pacers in the 11. "Luckily this time we went with four seamers. So there's three seamers now that have to do the work.

"Otherwise, Temba (Bavuma) would have to bowl again (laughter). But yes, it's never nice for Dale because he's just come back from injury, so just feeling very sympathetic for him. It's not a nice thing, but we have to find a way to win this Test match."