Republic of Ireland winger Robbie Brady will be out of action for around four weeks after opting to have surgery to correct a long-standing hernia problem today.

Brady, who withdrew from the Ireland squad for the World Cup qualifiers against Germany and Kazakhstan last night, had intended to put the operation off until the international break.

The winger was to have a pain-killing injection to get through City’s clash against Aston Villa on Saturday before undergoing hernia surgery next week.

However, Hull's head of medical services Rob Price said Brady had conceded it was worth having the operation as soon as possible.

Price told the Tigers’ official website: “It’s actually a condition that we’ve been managing for around six weeks now. Robbie has managed to play through that and been particularly successful despite being in a reasonable amount of pain.

“We had a sit-down between Robbie, the manager and myself to make a decision on when it would be best to have the surgery and Robbie decided that he couldn’t really continue to play with the pain he was having.”

Brady has scored three times for Hull in six appearances this season and has been an integral part of their impressive start to the new campaign, in which they have won three, drawn one and lost two.

He was named in Noel King’s initial 26-man squad for the World Cup double-header later this month, but the caretaker Ireland manager expected to be without the former Manchester United midfielder.

So far, King has declined to call up a replacement for the Dubliner.