Legendary South African batter AB de Villiers opened up on his early retirement from the game. He revealed that he played with a detached retina in the final years of his career. He took retirement from all forms of the game in November 2021, following an illustrious career for his country as well as in franchise cricket.
AB de Villiers made his debut for South Africa in 2008. He made a name for himself with his audacious batting approach. He was also one of the best finishers in world cricket. AB de Villiers’ retirement came as a shock to his many cricketers as well as his fans. The former cricketer revealed that he had a detached retina, which troubled him in his last two years in the sport.
“My youngster accidentally kicked me in 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.”
AB de Villiers reveals why he didn’t reverse his International retirement decision
AB de Villiers retired from International cricket in 2018, three years before retiring from all forms of the game. He played his final International match for South Africa in March 2018 against Australia in Johannesburg. There were speculations about him coming out of retirement for the 2019 World Cup. However, South African selectors prefer to stick with their plans.
“Covid certainly played a role, there’s no doubt about it. From an international perspective, the 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,” said AB de Villiers.
“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,” he added.
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