Former South Africa captain AB de Villiers has said that doctors warned him he could have lost his eyesight after they found a detached retina in his right eye.
De Villiers was asked on a podcast about playing with the injury. “Yes, I had eye surgery some time ago. My right eye is not my dominant eye, so I don’t think it had much of an impact on my cricket,” he replied, adding that the vision in that eye blurred during the IPL, “especially at night.”
“I got my eye checked after retiring because I didn’t want surgery during my playing career,” he said, adding that doctors found the detached retina and operated the next day. “They warned me that I could have lost my eyesight.”
De Villiers retired from international cricket in 2018 but kept playing for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL until 2021.
In December 2023, he revealed that his son had accidentally kicked him in the eye with his heel, and that he played the last two years of his career with a detached retina.
Fans know him as “Mr. 360” for his ability to score all around the ground. He scored 8,765 runs in 114 Tests at an average of 50.66, with 22 centuries and a highest score of 278 not out. In 228 ODIs, he made 9,577 runs at 53.50, including 25 centuries. He also scored 5,162 runs in 184 IPL matches.
He holds the ODI records for the fastest fifty (16 balls), century (31 balls) and 150 (64 balls). He set the first two on January 18, 2015, when he scored 149 off 44 balls against West Indies in Johannesburg.
He won the ICC ODI Player of the Year award three times.
