Melbourne Cup placegetter Mount Athos has been ruled out of another Australian trip due to injury.

Trainer Marco Botti and owner Dr Marwan Koukash had been keen to improve on the horse's Cup record of third last year and fifth in 2012 he was trained by Luca Cumani.

After two fairs runs in Dubai, Mount Athos was last sighted winning the Aston Park Stakes at Newbury in May.

Botti reported the seven-year-old to be sore after that victory and after a break failed to resolve his issue, further investigation has revealed a ligament problem.

"When he ran last time, he came back quite jarred up and sore after the race so we decided to give him a break to freshen him up and let things settle down," Botti said.

"When he came back into full training, I wasn't 100 per cent happy with his action so we investigated a bit more and there is a problem with his suspensory ligament.

"He is an older horse so it can take some time to come right, so we will have to see how it goes and he will probably miss the rest of the year.

"He's a horse that always tries his best and we would hate for something drastic to happen to him on a racecourse, especially if he were to run on fast ground in the Melbourne Cup.

"We will give him time to get over this problem and then see where we are."