FLORENCE, Italy (AP) — American-born forward Giuseppe Rossi will be sidelined for four to five months after yet another operation on his troublesome right knee on Friday.

Rossi’s Italian club, Fiorentina, said that the striker underwent arthroscopic surgery to repair his meniscus but that the operation showed no ligament damage.

It was Rossi’s fourth operation on his right knee. He missed four months of last season with a sprained ligament, and the New Jersey-born striker was left out of Italy’s World Cup squad because of that injury. Rossi was named in Cesare Prandelli’s provisional 30-man list but omitted from the final squad because of doubts over his fitness.

Fiorentina said the operation took place in Vail, Colorado, and that Rossi will begin his rehab in New York next week before returning to Florence.

Rossi led Serie A with 14 goals in 17 games before injuring the medial collateral ligament in his knee from a hard tackle by Livorno’s Leandro Rinaudo on Jan. 5.

It was the latest in a long line of knee injuries for the 27-year-old.

Rossi tore his right anterior cruciate ligament during a game for Villarreal against Real Madrid in October 2011 and needed three operations before returning in May 2013 with Fiorentina. He has seven goals in 29 international appearances.

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