Manchester City forward Mario Balotelli is to undergo knee surgery that could keep him out of action for six weeks. Balotelli injured his lateral meniscus on his scoring debut against Timisoara in the Europa League on 19 August. And despite undergoing a rest period since in a bid to cure the problem, the club decided to operate after a setback in training this week. The Italian will therefore miss City's Premier League match against Chelsea and a Europa League tie with Juventus. Balotelli signed from Inter Milan in the summer for £21m but has played only 33 minutes for the club so far - as a second-half substitute in City's 1-0 Europa League win over Romanian side Timisoara last month. "The Italian's injury is to the lateral meniscus, one of the two most crucial structures in the knee, and medical wisdom is to try and encourage the problem to heal without recourse to an operation," read a club statement. "It was hoped that the symptoms would settle down but once Balotelli began to step up his recovery programme this week, it became clear that action would need to be taken." It is hoped the 20-year-old could return for City's potential crunch league match against Arsenal on 24 October. Source: BBC