Sri Lanka fast bowler Lasith Malinga has been ruled out of the rest of the Indian Premier League season due to the lingering knee injury that forced him to miss the World Twenty20.
The 32-year-old, one of the deadliest bowlers in limited overs cricket, hurt his knee against West Indies late last year.
Since then, the recovery has been slow, forcing Malinga to hand over the 20-over captaincy to Angelo Mathews on the eve of the World Twenty20 and then miss the entire tournament as Sri Lanka's title defence crumbled in India.
"MI's star pacer, Lasith Malinga has been ruled out of IPL 2016 due to a knee injury," his team Mumbai Indians said on Twitter.
"Malinga was expected to miss the first few matches of MI's IPL '16 campaign but the recovery period is longer than previously expected.
The slow recovery now casts doubt over Malinga being available for Sri Lanka's tour of England beginning next month.