Norwich City midfielder Andrew Surman is set to miss the rest of the Premier League season after underoing minor knee surgery. Picture by Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd

Norwich City midfielder Andrew Surman is poised to miss the rest of the Premier League campaign after undergoing knee surgery.

City chief Chris Hughton confirmed at Colney on Thursday afternoon the 26-year-old’s injury-hit season is likely to have ended after an operation on a knee ligament problem which had limited him to one senior appearance since October.

Surman played 70 minutes in the FA Cup fourth round home defeat to Luton, but Hughton and the club’s medical team have decided the surgical route is the best option to get the cultured midfielder back to full fitness.

“It was a very small ligament operation that will keep him out we think probably for the season,” said the Norwich boss. “Andrew had a small operation that has been very successful on his knee which will certainly keep him out for a good period of weeks. We need to assess how he recovers, but I stress it was a minor operation. It is the same knee he has had a problem for a while with and the signs were quite good recently, but he has had a couple of set backs. The approach we have taken has been the correct one. We didn’t want to jump into going for an operation so we needed to give it the necessary time to recover and on a couple of occasions we thought that was the case. He got through a really good period of training with no problems at all but unfortunately it has recurred and the correct decision was to get it operated on.”

Fellow midfielder Alex Tettey also has a knee problem which requires further rest. The Norwegian international will miss Southampton’s Premier League visit this weekend, but Hughton confirmed he has no fresh injury concerns. Scottish international defender Steven Whittaker suffered no adverse reaction to a 90-minute development league run out against Stoke’s U21s earlier this week.

“He is available and the 90 minutes will have done him the world of good, the same goes for Leon Barnett, so, yes, Steven is available and fit,” said Hughton. “Alex will be out for another couple of weeks. He is fine. It is just a situation where we need to rest him and make sure he gets the correct recovery that he needs but we are certainly quite happy with how it is going. The only other injury we have is John Ruddy, who is making good progress.”

Hughton is confident Norwich will avoid any lingering hangover from a 4-0 league defeat at champions-elect Manchester United when they host the struggling Saints.

“I think what hurt us more is what happened from 75 minutes onwards because until that point we were still very much in the game,” he said. “When you go to Old Trafford you accept that you are going to have less possession because of the quality they have. You accept how tough it will be to go and get a result. But I felt we were still very much in the game at 1-0. The most disappointing thing was the manner and the goals we conceded late in the game. You know with United and their substitutions they can put you under pressure and they can open you up but until that point we were quite happy.

“When you go to Old Trafford at any point in the season you know what happens overall to us will not depend on that one result. Only Tottenham have beaten them there this season and look at the season they are having. We might not like it but if you don’t play well enough then you have to move on quickly.”