Mark Boucher has to quit after eye injury

Mark Boucher announced his immediate retirement from international cricket on Tuesday and admitted that he faced an "uncertain recovery" and a fight to retain the sight in his left eye.

Boucher is likely to require further surgery as doctors battle to repair the damage caused by a flying bail which struck his eye while he was keeping wicket for South Africa against -Somerset on Monday.

He had a three-hour operation on Monday evening to repair a severe laceration to his eyeball and will return home to South Africa as soon as the medical staff give him the all-clear to fly.

The freak nature of the injury and its severity have rocked the South African team. Now they have to come to terms with the sudden retirement of a player who has been a key part of their unit for 15 years.

Graeme Smith, the South Africa captain, read out a prepared -statement on Boucher's behalf during the lunch break on the second day of their side's match against Somerset at Taunton.

The statement said: "It is with sadness, and in some pain, that I make this announcement. Due to the severity of my eye injury, I will not be able to play international cricket again. I had prepared for this UK tour as well, if not better than I have prepared for any tour in my career. I had never anticipated announcing my retirement now, but circumstances have dictated differently. I wish the team well in the UK, as I head home and on to a road of uncertain recovery."

Fellow wicketkeepers Matt Prior and Alec Stewart were two of many cricketers to pay tribute to Boucher yesterday and the South African issued his own message of thanks. "Your support for me has brought me to my knees," he wrote on Twitter. "I can't thank you all enough. It is going to be a tough time for me regarding my eye but I will pull through."

Boucher had been due to retire from international cricket at the end of this tour, but at 35 could have hoped to cash in on Twenty20 cricket for a few more years.

Paul Downton, the former England wicketkeeper, suffered a severe eye injury in 1990 and retired six weeks into the following season when he realised he had lost depth of vision. Colin Milburn lost his left eye in a car accident in 1969 and though he did return to cricket, he was never the same destructive batsman. Downton's injury did not require immediate surgery, a sign of the seriousness of Boucher's problem.

Damage to the surface of the eyeball is of less concern than structural distortion inside the eye. "He has had a repair of the globe of the eye which is a serious injury," Professor Harminder Dua, president of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists, told The Daily Telegraph.

"He may have lost the lens or it may have separated. The severity of the injury can vary. If it was just the surface of the eyeball that was stitched up then things can be good. But because he was hit by a blunt object they generally cause a rupture and the damage is severe. The shock waves from the blow cause a lot of destruction.

"It is reasonable to assume the prognosis for sight in that eye will be poor. If everything goes well and he has an artificial lens inserted then he will get vision, but it is unlikely to be as good as before."

Smith was visibly shaken when he spoke to the media but he will have to lift the mood of his team quickly with the first Test against England a week away. The South Africans will announce a replacement today, likely to be Thami Tsolekile, but Gary Kirsten, the head coach, said yesterday AB de Villiers would keep wicket in the first Test.

Boucher played 147 Tests, a remarkable number for a wicketkeeper, and took 998 dismissals in all forms of international cricket. He was a pugnacious batsman whose fighting qualities often rescued South Africa when the team were in trouble. The keeper sets the tone in the field and Boucher's combative nature contributed to South Africa's aggressive style.

"They do need to get over it, I'm sure they will but he's going to be missed hugely," Mickey Arthur, the current Australia coach and former South Africa coach, said. "I remember the series we won here in 2008, the Test match we won at Edgbaston was on the back of a very good innings by Graeme Smith, but 'Bouch' was there at the end of it.

"I remember at tea time, he said, 'Coach if I'm at the wicket, and I will be there, we're going to win the series, we didn't come all the way to lose this'. That just typified exactly what he was like. He was always in there, he was always up for a challenge."