Taylor sent for surgery on forearm

Ross Taylor will undergo surgery on Tuesday on his broken left forearm and will not be able to bat in the second innings of the third Test against South Africa. Taylor was struck by a Morne Morkel short ball in the 66th over and faced one more delivery before retiring on 18. After being examined by an orthopaedic surgeon, it was determined that the best course of action would be for the New Zealand captain to go under the knife.

"This will give him the best opportunity to recover with the actual return date determined by the speed of his recovery from surgery," Ian Murphy, New Zealand Cricket's medical director said. "It is not anticipated he will be able to play within the next four weeks but this will depend on how quickly the injury has healed and Ross's level of comfort."

Taylor's surgery means there will be no chance for him to pull off a repeat of the heroics Graeme Smith performed when he came out to bat with a broken hand against Australia in 2009, even if New Zealand need him bat. It is also inevitable that Taylor will miss part of the IPL. He was due to turn out for the Delhi Daredevils after transferring to them from the Rajasthan Royals last month.

Taylor has had an unlucky run with injuries in Test matches. He tore a calf muscle in January against Zimbabwe and only recovered in time for the Test series against South Africa, where he has been injured again.

South Africa are also without one of their star attractions. Hashim Amla was ruled out of the rest of the Test and is recovering from the emergency surgery he had on Friday night after being hit on the groin off an inside edge from Chris Martin. He continued to bat for more than an hour after being struck when he was on 33, but was sent to the hospital for observation when he was dismissed 30 runs later. Amla has been resting at the team hotel while play has continued.

The tourists' other walking wounded is Jacques Kallis The allrounder strained a muscle in his neck during training, which did not recover in time for the match. Kallis went for a scan on Monday in Wellington and was found to have done no serious damage. He should be fit in time to play in the one-off Twenty20 against India in Johannesburg on Friday, which is being held in honour of his service to cricket.