South Africa have confirmed that captain Graeme Smith will return home early from the tour of Australia to get treatment on his chronic elbow injury.

The left-handed opener is still set to lead his country in the third and final Test of the series in Sydney on Friday, which is live on Sky Sports.

However he will miss the two Twenty20 internationals and five match one-day series which follow, spinner Johan Botha captaining the side in his absence.

The decision for Smith to leave has been taken to try and get him fit for the return series against the Australians on home soil in February.

Best chance

"We have decided to send Graeme (Smith) home after (the) Sydney (Test) to give him the best chance of getting ready for the home series," South Africa coach Mickey Arthur said.

"He will have the blood injection as soon as he gets back and we think that by following this course of action as soon as possible after Sydney, we will give him the best possibility opportunity of being fit for the home series.

"He is four or five cortizone injections down the line. We thought the cortizone was going to work but that is not going to be the case.

"He goes through a huge amount of discomfort and it seems to get a lot worse when he reaches 40 or 50. It almost gets to a point when he can't grip the bat with his top hand any more.

"He is desperate to play at Sydney and make it a great match for the team and for South Africa. He has a very high pain threshold."

Smith has been in superb form with the bat in the Tests, hitting a hundred and two half-centuries to help the Proteas take an unassailable 2-0 lead.

South Africa have announced that Neil McKenzie will remain with the squad, adding some experience to a one-day side coach Arthur admits is still very much a work in progress.

Opportunities

"It does give us an opportunity with our ODI side," he said. "As I have always said, our one-day side is still a work in progress, it is still a young side, and we are giving an opportunity to some younger guys to stake a claim.

"We are looking to build our one-day side over the next two years which obviously culminates in the next World Cup on the sub-continent in 2011.

"So it will be a slightly younger one-day side. Johan Botha will take over as captain and we will keep another wise head in the dressing room in the form of Neil McKenzie. He will stay as cover in the batting department and we think that is the best route to go.

"It is unfortunate to lose your captain but we need to give him the best opportunity to be ready for the Test series in South Africa."