South Africa opener Aiden Markram has been ruled out of the remainder of the Test series against England after sustaining a fracture in his left ring finger on the second day of the Boxing Day Test.

Markram, 25, sustained a fracture that affected the “distal joint of his left ring finger”, during the ongoing Test at The Centurion, and will require surgery. He is expected to be sidelined for at least six weeks, and will be ruled out of the four-Test series.

#BreakingNews Proteas opening batsman, Aiden Markram has been ruled out of the remainder of the Test series against England after sustaining a fracture to his fourth left finger.The injury will require surgery and will remove him from play for at least six weeks.#SAvENG #Thread pic.twitter.com/zLwfwL4Fhu

— Cricket South Africa (@OfficialCSA) December 28, 2019

Dr Shuaib Manjra, the CSA chief medical officer, said: “After consulting with a number of hand specialists yesterday we arrived at a decision that the best outcome would be achieved through surgical reduction and fixation. This would mean him, unfortunately, missing the rest of the series against England.”

In October this year, Markram was ruled out of the Ranchi Test against India, after punching a solid object in frustration following his dismissal in the Pune Test, which resulted in a fractured wrist.

“We feel for Aiden who worked extremely hard to come through his previous hand fracture sustained in India to be Test match ready,” Manjra added.

Playing in his first Test series against England, Maiden scored 20 and 2 in his two outings. In South Africa’s practice game preceding the series against England Lions, Markram managed 1 and 30.