South African pacer Morne Morkel suffered a side strain while playing in his last Test for the country at the Wanderers on Saturday.
The lanky bowler was just two balls into his 13th over when he had to jog off the field due to the injury.
However, he returned to the field soon to see if he could bowl again at some stage on Sunday.
Cricket South Africa later confirmed that the nature of his injury was similar to that he had picked up in last year's series against Bangladesh.
South Africa are currently leading the four-match series 2-1 against Australia.
Morkel was named the man-of-the-match in the third Test of the series for his nine-wicket haul.
The 33-year-old, who recently became only the fifth Proteas bowler in history to get to 300 Test wickets, announced his retirement from the international cricket in February this year.