South Africa's Dale Steyn ruled out of England Test series .

  

Dale Steyn has ruled himself out of the Test series against England later this summer after failing to recover from a long-term shoulder injury.

Steyn has not played cricket since November when he fractured his shoulder playing against Australia. He had already been left out of South Africa’s Champions Trophy squad to give him more time to be fit for the four Test series against England but the 33-year-old had been hoping to play for the South Africa A side in England next month to prove his fitness. But the 33 year old has acknowledged he will not make it and has not put a date on his return to cricket.

“My recovery is going well but it is taking a little longer than I expected it to,” he said.

“I am able to do a lot of things - running, hiking, gym work. But bowling is not one of them and I won’t be ready in time. I’m working on little muscles at the moment and when I start bowling again it will be off one pace. Then two paces, three, four. We have to understand that fast bowling is not something normal people do so it’s going to take time. Normal people do things mostly below the shoulder line; it’s unusual to have something above the line except for things like bowling and tennis. I just have to be patient.”

Steyn has hinted he could play county cricket towards the end of the summer to build up his fitness for a home Test series against Bangladesh.

  

His loss is a big blow for South Africa and it means two of their biggest names will not be playing Test cricket this summer with AB De Villiers also ruling himself out of the series.

South Africa they have become accustomed to being without Steyn over the past two years. He broke down in the 2015 Boxing Day Test against England and missed the rest of the series

source.telegraph