AC Milan's Zlatan Ibrahimovic undergoes surgery, expected to be out eight months

"AC Milan announces that Zlatan Ibrahimović underwent an operation on his left knee carried out by Dr. Bertrand Sonnery-Cottet, with the Club's Medical Director Stefano Mazzoni in attendance, at the Hôpital Jean Mermoz in Lyon," the club said in a statement. "The arthroscopy had been planned for a while to definitively resolve the joint's instability through the reconstruction of the anterior cruciate ligament, with lateral reinforcement and meniscus reparation."

The Swedish striker played a key role in the Rossoneri winning the Serie A title for the first time in 11 years. He has won three Serie A championships with AC Milan over his 23-year career, and another three with rival club Inter Milan. He also won LaLiga with Barcelona, won Ligue 1 four times with Paris Saint-Germain and won Europa League with Manchester United.

With the surgery sidelining him for so long and his contract almost up, Ibrahimovic has admitted he is concerned about what might come next.

"I'm in a situation now where I'm close to the goal line ... so I'm a little bit panicking," he told ESPN in early May. "Because when it stops, what do you do? I know I can do a lot of things, I will have offers from all over the place. But the adrenaline I get on the field, I will never get that [from] something else."