AB de Villiers brushes aside retirement talks despite grappling with injuries

These are tough times for the Proteas with a grueling transition phase impacting their fortunes both on and off the field. Not the one to shy away from a challenge, Test skipper AB de Villiers has committed to representing his country ‘as long as can’.

A multitude of injury problems ruled him out of South Africa’s home Test series against New Zealand. However, the 32-year old quashed murmurs relating to the uncertainty surrounding his future and targeted next month’s Ireland ODI for returning to the international arena.

Speaking to reporters at the launch of the 2-Test series against the Kiwis, De Villiers revealed, “I love playing for my country and I would love to play as long as I can. You've got to look after your body sometimes and that's happening with the six weeks now. Hopefully, after this New Zealand series, I will be ready to go and will tackle the Aussies in October. There's a game against Ireland in seven weeks' time. That's a good time to test where I am physically.”

However, things do not appear to be uncomplicated with the right-hander having to deal with quite a few niggles. Amidst an already heavy workload, he admitted that the task was not about to get easier.

The Pretoria-born cricketer felt, “I have five to six niggles at the moment including the shoulder that everybody knows about which started about eight months ago. I have been hanging in there. I did fool myself a bit in thinking that I could just keep going and keep going and it has sort of caught up with me a bit. It's a big shame that I am losing out a few Test matches. Unfortunately, it's happened that way. It caught me like a thief in the night. This was not part of the plan.”

In the next 10 months, South Africa are scheduled to visit Australia, New Zealand and England aside from the 2017 Champions Trophy. Having fallen to number 6 in the Test rankings, there is also an additional obstacle of incorporating the quota system starting from the upcoming Test series.

After participating in a camp which helped the team regroup, De Villiers believed, “One of the key things about the camp is that we didn't just want the team there, we wanted everyone who could possibly represent the Proteas over the next year or two or three. We were really honest with each other which is a great thing. It was for us to revisit our core values and what we want to achieve over the next while. I don't think you can achieve big things if you don't know where you are going.”