Tsotsobe out of Sri Lanka tour

Lonwabo Tsotsobe, the South Africa left-arm seamer, has been ruled out of the tour to Sri Lanka in July to facilitate his recovery from ankle surgery scheduled on April 16. He will be sidelined for up to three months.

South Africa's team manager and doctor Mohammad Moosajee said Tsotsobe had been struggling for some time and a gap in the calender had finally emerged for treatment.

"Lonwabo has been suffering from this ankle problem for the last year and a half," Moosajee said. "This is the first gap we have had which minimises his time out of the game. It's a fairly common injury among fast bowlers and will be conducted by a renowned ankle specialist in Pretoria.

"The recovery time is quite extensive so Lonwabo will probably be unavailable for selection for the tour to Sri Lanka. But we will be working hard to have him ready for the tour to Zimbabwe in August."

His right ankle posterior talar impingement syndrome had made him miss the T20 series against New Zealand in December 2012 and has been a problem since.

He had not been part of the squad bound for Sri Lanka for a limited-overs series last July, but was drafted into the XI despite a recurrence of the injury. Apart from one match-winning 4 for 22, he was largely unimpressive and attracted criticism from the coach Russell Domingo regarding his fitness and commitment.