The disgraced Australian cricketer Steve Smith has been ruled out from the ongoing season of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) due to a side strain. Smith’s captain for Barbados Tridents Jason Holder confirmed the news during the toss ahead of the game against St Lucia Stars on Sunday at Kensington Oval. Smith is on his way back home to receive treatment for the injury.

Steve was taking available to taking part in the league for the first time after being suspended by Cricket Australia (CA) for a year as he was found guilty of being involved in a ball-tampering scandal that took place in South Africa earlier this year. He also took part in the in the inaugural Canadian T20 league earlier this year after his suspension. He has been replaced by Bangladeshi Shakib Al Hasan in the Tridents squad.

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As the injury is expected to sideline Smith for 7-10 days, by which point the tournament will have concluded, he has returned home to prepare for the Sydney Grade season with Sutherland. His first match of the season is on September 22. Talking about his injury, Barbados Tridents coach Robin Singh said, “He had a slight tear and he had to go back, so it’s a really unfortunate situation.”

The Tridents went on to lose the match against Stars by six wickets, with David Warner (42 off 45 not out) seeing the Stars home with 15 balls to spare while chasing a meager target of 136.

In the seven games for the Tridents till now, Smith had picked three wickets and scored 185 runs at an average of 26.42. Tridents are currently standing at the lowest position in the points table, with just two wins to their name after playing 8 games.