Manchester City's Mario Balotelli to have surgery on injured knee

Mario Balotelli's frustrating start to life at Manchester City has continued with the news that he needs a knee operation and is expected to be out for a month, and possibly longer. Balotelli, signed for £22.5m from Internazionale last month, is to undergo surgery in Pavia, near Milan, tomorrow after a scan showed that he had damaged the cartilage in the final moments of his debut, the away leg of the Europa League play-off against Timisoara on 19 August. The 20-year-old has not played since, missing three games for City as well as being ruled out of Italy's European Championship qualifiers against Estonia and the Faroe Islands over the past week. City's medical staff had hoped that the pain would subside but Balotelli has been unable to train properly and it has now been decided that he needs surgery, meaning he could miss another six games, starting with the visit of Blackburn Rovers on Saturday. Balotelli was one of six summer signings for City, at a total cost of £126m, but has been restricted to only 33 minutes of action so far. Injury issues have also restricted another new arrival, Aleksandar Kolarov, to only the first half of the opening Premier League game against Tottenham while Jérôme Boateng, the £10.5m recruit from Hamburg has not featured at all because of a knee problem he exacerbated when a drinks trolley rolled into him on a plane.