Real Madrid striker Gonzalo Higuain will be out for three to four months, according to the doctor who operated on his back problem.

The 23-year-old Argentina international has been sidelined since November with a herniated disc and went under the knife yesterday at the Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, United States.

Dr Richard Fessler, who performed the surgery, told the Spanish press: "The operation went very well. I have no doubt that in between two and four weeks he will be able to run without problems, then in a period of 10 weeks after the operation he will be able to take part with the rest of his teams in all types of work.

"If everything goes well, in three months he could be playing competitively, although it's also possible it could be four."

If everything goes well, in three months he could be playing competitively, although it's also possible it could be four.
Dr Richard Fessler, who operated on Gonzalo Higuain

"Once you have a back problem, sometimes you will have pain and other times you won't. I think that he's going to have that, but not sufficiently strong as to affect him. All the American football and basketball players have returned to play at 100 per cent."

Fessler added it takes a year to recover 100 per cent from any operation.

It remains to be seen if Higuain will play any part in the current campaign for Madrid, with the Spanish season scheduled to finish the weekend of 22 May and the UEFA Champions League final, if Jose Mourinho's men get that far, to be played on 28 May.

Higuain has been Madrid's leading scorer in La Liga for the last two seasons and has netted seven times in this campaign so far.