De Villiers is to have surgery on his left elbow after failing a fitness test on Tuesday ahead of the five-match ODI home series which starts on Friday.
He will also miss the three-game test series in Australia in November which includes a first day-night five-day match for South Africa.
“AB de Villiers is still symptomatic and has not recovered from his elbow impingement injury which makes surgery the only long-term solution,” team manager Mohammed Moosajee said in a statement.
“We have tried the conservative management of rest, physio, rehab and cortisone infiltration into the elbow, but that has not yielded the results that we would have liked.
“He will have surgery to the elbow early next week and the target is to hopefully have him back for the Sri Lankan home series over the Christmas period.”
Rilee Rossouw will replace De Villiers for the ODI series.
(Reporting by Nick Said, editing by Ed Osmond)
