South Africa captain Graeme Smith has suffered a double fracture to the middle finger of his right hand and will miss the remainder of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Smith had just returned to action after fracturing the little finger on his other hand during the tour to India last month, and is now in serious danger of missing the World T20 Championships, which take place in the Caribbean next month.

"I have a double fracture in my right middle finger? after taking the catch off [Virender] Sehwag last night, when I landed my finger got hooked in the ground," the left-handed opening batsman reported on social networking website Twitter.

Besides these latest injuries to his hands, Smith has had to deal with various injury problems during past two seasons.

He suffered another broken finger on his left hand during the Sydney Test on the Proteas' last tour to Australia, as well as picking up a carpal injury during the second Test of the return series.

The national skipper's injury woes were further complicated as he suffered from tennis elbow for large parts of the 2008/09 season.