Last Updated: Tue, 13 May 2008 12:41
Matt Derbyshire has been forced to undergo an operation to cure a hernia.
Derbyshire has been struggling with the injury for much of the season and has only managed to make one substitute appearance during the final month of the campaign.
The striker is set to have surgery in the hope it will put an end to the problem and Derbyshire should be fully fit for the return to pre-season training in July.
"He has struggled since Christmas because of a problem with his hernia," manager Mark Hughes revealed. "He is in for an operation now and he has done well to keep going to be fair to him.
"We have kept patching him up and throwing him out there and he's done well."