Mexico and Wolves forward Raúl Jiménez will undergo surgery on his knee and is expected to be out until January, his Championship side said Tuesday.
Due to the injury, he’ll be unavailable for the two legs of Mexico’s upcoming Concacaf Nations League quarterfinal series against Jamaica in mid-November.
“Raul injured his left MCL against Everton, which was four weeks ago now and unfortunately the injury has not responded as we expected, so we’ve decided that the best thing is to have surgery to repair that ligament,” said Wolves director of performance in a news release.
“Normally the ligament for a fairly low-grade injury would heal on its own, however this has not responded as we were expecting, and after regularly scanning for the last three weeks, the ligament is not healing in the anticipated way. We’ve consulted with several knee specialists and decided the best course of action is to move to surgery to ensure that we are back in control of the time frames and have a clear idea of when he will be back.”
Jiménez’s surgery is scheduled for Friday, with his rehabilitation expected to last three months.
Sidelined since the match against Everton on Sept. 16, the 35-year-old’s injury means not only an extended absence for his club side, but also for the Mexican national team, who weren’t able to call Jiménez up for the recent fall international break and won’t be able to bring him back in for the November window.
Without their starting striker from the FIFA World Cup, Mexico went winless in the September/October break that marked the first run of games for new manager Rafael Marquez.
