Norwich City have suffered a major injury blow on the eve of the Premier League kick-off with Youssouf Mulumbu ruled out for 'several weeks' after breaking his right foot in Saturday's pre-season finale against Brentford.
Mulumbu had scans over the weekend which confirmed a fractured metatarsal injury, which will be operated on later on Monday.
The club's second summer signing limped off in the closing stages of the 2-1 victory over the Bees at Carrow Road and City boss Alex Neil confirmed the bad news after watching the club's development squad beat Ipswich's U21s 2-0 in a friendly at Colney on Monday afternoon.
'Unfortunately Youssouf has a fractured metatarsal which requires immediate surgery,' Neil told the club's official site. 'We anticipate his recovery should take several weeks and this is something we will be able to assess further after the operation has taken place today.'
The ex-West Brom midfielder had impressed following his close-season arrival on a free transfer and opened his goalscoring account for the club in the 2-1 friendly win over FC Augsburg in the final match of the club's recent tour of Austria and Germany.
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