Dunne’s lay-off also means he will miss the Republic of Ireland’s World Cup qualifiers against Israel on June 4 and the Faroe Islands four days later.

Dunne, who underwent the first of those operations yesterday, will now miss City’s final Barclays Premiership matches against Aston Villa and Middlesbrough.

Manager Stuart Pearce, who is hoping to be appointed beyond the end of the season, told the club’s official website, www.mcfc.co.uk: “I could from a personal point of view have said that I wanted Richard to wait until the end of the season.

“But I have to be honest to him and to the club and I said get it done so that he can be in top shape for the pre-season.

“The way he has been playing it might have helped my job prospects to have had Richard available for the last two games of the season. But strangely enough there will probably be more pressure on the new manager of this club come the start of next season than there is at the moment.

“It was a common-sense decision from myself to get Richard in for the operations sooner rather than later.”

Dunne will have his second operation next week and is then expected to require four to six weeks’ rehabilitation.