The 29-year-old Wales international suffered renewed injury problems in a pre-season clash with Ipswich Town and is downcast after spending much of the summer trying to regain full fitness.

He told the club's official website: "I am out for a month, so it is gutting for me not to be able to start the season, especially as I have had a great pre-season and worked really hard.

"But it won't affect me too much in terms of working through the rehabilitation for this injury and to get back better than before again.

"I have probably had the best pre-season ever and I think I have shown that I proved my point in that I totally recovered from my injury last year and have returned fitter and stronger, like I said I would.

"I wanted to hit the ground running and make an immediate impact.

"I have done this in pre-season and was looking to carry this into the start of the new season, but I will just have to wait a bit now to do this."