January signing Eliot Matazo has undergone surgery on his ACL injury as the Belgian midfielder takes a big step on the road to recovery.

The Hull City ace, who became the third Tigers player to suffer a season-ending knee injury this term when he limped off in the first half of last Tuesday's defeat at Cardiff City, has gone under the knife quicker than expected with the procedure cop on Thursday.

Boss Ruben Selles has confirmed the 23-year-old has gone to a specialist facility in the Netherlands to undergo his operation after getting the green light from his consultant last week, and will recover in Amsterdam.

"Almost right now is right now during the afternoon," Selles told Hull Live when asked for an update on the winter transfer arrival from Monaco, who delivered a stand-out performance in the win at Sunderland just days before disaster struck in South Wales.

"The consultation with the specialist was good.

Usually, when you have the consultation, the knee is still swelling, or you need to develop a little bit of strength in the quad muscle because it gets a lot weaker after the surgery, but actually, apparently, the doctor found it like it was perfect to make the surgery right now, and he had a couple of days to sort a few things out.

"While Liam Millar remained in Hull and Mohamed Belloumi out in Qatar, Matazo will stay in Amsterdam until he's ready to return to England and continue his recovery on these shores, closely monitored by City's medical staff, and supporters by his family as he recovers from the operation.

"We are just working on how to do it, so his first part of the rehab is going to be away (from Hull), and then he will come back to us," Selles continued.

"Our medical department are sorting it out.

It's a very sensitive period where the player needs to be with his own people, so they will take care of him because obviously it's very uncomfortable for him, and it is important that he has a good rehab centre or a top one close to him and that the doctors and people that we trust.

"Amsterdam has the requests that we need.

It's not far away from London, neither for after the surgery, so he'll go there and have that first part of his recovery.

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