Madrid, Feb 14 (IANS): Villarreal will be without French midfielder, Francis Coquelin after confirming on Monday that he needs surgery on a torn cruciate ligament in his right knee.

The 31-year-old former Arsenal and Valencia player suffered the injury during Sunday night's 1-0 defeat at home to FC Barcelona after a collision with Barca midfielder, Franck Kessie and had tests on Monday morning that confirmed the extent of his problem, reports Xinhua news agency.

Villarreal have confirmed that he will need an operation on the injury and the usual recovery time for this kind of problem.

The injury comes at a difficult moment for Villarreal, who have slipped to eighth in the classification after a run of three successive defeats.

They are currently without key players, Giovani Lo Celso and Gerard Moreno through injury, while Manu Morlanes is also out of a squad, that was weakened by the loss of forward, Arnaut Danjuma in the January transfer window.