GROS ISLET, Saint Lu­cia – The St Lu­cia Kings have been dealt a ma­jor blow with bat­ter Ac­k­eem Au­guste ruled out of the Re­pub­lic Bank Caribbean Pre­mier League with im­me­di­ate ef­fect due to med­ical rea­sons.

The an­nounce­ment was made by the Kings in a press re­lease on Mon­day, al­though it did not spec­i­fy the med­ical rea­son.

“Ac­k­eem’s health and well-be­ing re­main the team’s pri­or­i­ty, and he will re­ceive the nec­es­sary care and sup­port dur­ing this pe­ri­od.

“The Saint Lu­cia Kings wish Ac­k­eem a full and speedy re­cov­ery and look for­ward to wel­com­ing him back when he is med­ical­ly cleared to re­turn,” the Kings said in their of­fi­cial state­ment.

It re­mains un­clear whether Au­guste will be able to re­turn lat­er in the tour­na­ment.

As a re­sult, the 22-year-old Au­guste will not be avail­able for the Kings’ up­com­ing match against the Trin­ba­go Knight Rid­ers sched­uled to take place at the Queen’s Park Oval, St Clair, Port-of-Spain on Wednes­day.

The Kings cur­rent­ly sit in sec­ond po­si­tion in the CPL ta­ble with three wins and three loss­es in their six match­es, with Au­guste be­ing one of their lead­ing bat­ters to date.

He has scored 100 runs in five in­nings, with a top­score of 63 against the Bar­ba­dos Tri­dents in a los­ing cause. He has scored the third most runs for the Kings this sea­son be­hind on­ly Kamil Pooran (168 runs) and An­dries Gous (113 runs).

CMC