The 23-year-old suffered a knee injury in training on Friday, after having just recently resumed full training after being out for over five months with a similar problem.
A statement on the club’s official website read: “Bad luck keeps tormenting Santacroce. The Azzurri defender felt pain in his left knee and had an MRI scan at Villa Stuart.
“The diagnosis says he damaged the medial meniscus in his left knee and Santacroce will be forced to have anthroscopic surgery.
“His recovery time will be in the region of four weeks.”
