“Suresh Raina has returned to India for personal reasons and will be unavailable for the remainder of the IPL season,” the CSK CEO KS Viswanathan stated. “Chennai Super Kings offers complete support to Suresh and his family during this time.”

Suresh Raina has returned to India for personal reasons and will be unavailable for the remainder of the IPL season. Chennai Super Kings offers complete support to Suresh and his family during this time.

KS Viswanathan
CEO

— Chennai Super Kings (@ChennaiIPL) August 29, 2020

Raina, who is the second-highest IPL run-scorer (5368 runs) behind Virat Kohli, has only missed one match ever for the Chennai-based franchise in their history – an IPL 2018 encounter against Kings XI Punjab – but will now miss one full season for the three-time winners.

The southpaw was part of the five-day CSK camp that was held in Chennai and travelled with the rest of the squad to the UAE on August 21.

This comes as a big blow for the franchise, who are currently in the middle of a Covid-19 crisis. Reports emerged on Friday that at least 10 members of the CSK contingent have tested positive for Covid-19, including an India player.

CSK, as a result, were forced to extend their quarantine period in the UAE, pushing their training back by another five days to September 1.

Raina recently announced his retirement from international cricket, following in the footsteps of MS Dhoni, his former India captain and teammate.