(Image source: X.com)
[Saba Sports News] In a shocking revelation, former South Africa batter AB de Villiers talked about his eye injury, sharing that he played with a blurry vision in the last two years of his career.
De Villiers made a sudden retirement announcement from international cricket in 2018. However, he continued to feature in various leagues, especially in the IPL. He eventually bid adieu to all forms of cricket in 2021.
Reflecting on the end stages of his playing career, de Villiers made a surprising disclosure, opening up on the details of his right eye injury, which as per his doctor was serious enough to negatively impact his career.
“My youngster accidentally kicked me on my eye with his heel. I started really losing vision in the right eye. When I got the surgery done the doctor actually asked me, ‘How in the world did you play cricket like this?’. Luckily my left eye did a decent job for the last two years of my career,” de Villiers said as quoted by Wisden Cricket.
The South African further divulged on the retirement talks speaking at length about how he made a sudden decision to hang his boots in international cricket.
“Covid certainly played a role, there’s no doubt about it. From an international perspective, that 2015 World Cup hurt big time. It took me a while to get over that and then, when I got back into the side and I was ready to commit, I didn’t feel the same culture that I really needed at that time.
“I often found myself thinking, I don’t know, eh? Could this be the end of my career? I didn’t even really want to play IPL or anything else. I got away from everything in 2018 and then decided to push one more time with a bit of Test cricket, to try and beat India and Australia over here, and then I’ll call it. I didn’t want any spotlight on me. I just wanted to say, ‘I had a great time, thank you very much’,” de Villiers concluded.