Hull City have confirmed that their winger Robbie Brady will have a hernia operation today.
It had initially been hoped that the former Manchester United youngster could go under the surgeon's knife during the upcoming international break, which would allow him to turn out against Aston Villa this weekend.
However, having had the problem assessed by the club's medical staff, it has been decided that the 21-year-old is in need of immediate treatment.
"It's actually a condition that we've been managing for around six weeks now," Rob Price, the club's head of medical services told the official website. "The manager has been very good in terms of limiting Robbie's training sessions and has brought him off at times in games when he was still able to perform.
"We had a sit down between Robbie, the manager and myself to make a decision on when it would be best to have the surgery and Robbie decided that he couldn't really continue to play with the pain he was having.
"We met with the surgeon on Monday night and Robbie will go for surgery this afternoon. We're hopeful that he will be back playing sometime within around four weeks."
Brady has scored four goals for the Tigers so far this season.
Liam Apicella
