Dale Steyn will miss the five-match one-day series against England following his shoulder injury.
Steyn was injured in the first innings of the first Test with what was diagnosed as a shoulder spasm. But Mohammed Moosajee, team manager and doctor, said that new scans had revealed a bone stress reaction.
He is undergoing therapy and oxygen chamber treatment, said Moosajee, adding that Steyn might also miss two Twenty20 internationals at the end of the tour. A realistic target for the fats-bowler, he said, was to be fit for three Twenty20 internationals against Australia in March, shortly before the World Twenty20 tournament in India.
Steyn, 32, has only bowled in two of South Africa's most recent eight Tests, suffering injuries in the first innings on both occasions. The team doctor though believes that the latest injury should heal completely and the bowler will play a key role for South Africa in the near future.
Vernon Philander, another one of South Africa's injured fast bowlers, has not played since suffering an ankle injury before the second Test against India last year and is still two to three weeks away from a full recovery, although he has started bowling in the nets. Philander will not play in the one-day series either.
A third fast bowler, Kyle Abbott, will miss the first one-day international in Bloemfontein on February 3 after suffering a hamstring strain in the fourth Test which ended on Tuesday. But Moosajee said he expected Abbott to be available for the rest of the series.