Yaya faces hernia surgery

Yaya Toure will be out of action for Ivory Coast this summer

Barcelona midfielder Yaya Toure will undergo hernia surgery at the end of the season.

The surgery will rule Toure out of any training for six weeks.

It means Toure will miss all four of Ivory Coast's 2010 World Cup qualifiers in May and June.

"Injections have allowed the muscles to hold up until now," club doctor Ricard Pruna told Barcelona's website.

"But we are finally going to have to operate at the end of the season to solve the problem."

The last weekend of the Spanish season is the 16 and 17 May.

While Ivory Coast have World Cup qualifiers on four successive weekends starting on 30 May.

Toure is the brother of Arsenal defender and fellow Ivory Coast international Kolo Toure.

And he was one of the stars of The Elephants' 2008 Africa Cup of Nations campaign which saw them reach the semi-finals of the tournament.

The combative but skilful midfielder has also quickly become a favourite at Barcelona since joining the Catalan club from French side Monaco last summer.

Fans love his seemingly endless stamina and no-holds-barred approach to games.

Nevertheless, Toure's absence is unlikely to be too critical to Ivory Coast, who qualified for the World Cup finals for the first time when they were held in Germany two years.