Giuseppe Rossi will miss at least another six months after suffering a second serious knee injury.
Giuseppe Rossi became one of the hottest properties in European soccer after 18 goals in La Liga last season. Reuters

Villarreal and Italy striker Giuseppe Rossi will miss at least another six months after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament for a second time. The American-born 25-year-old first damaged his right knee last October, but having recently returned to training his club announced that Rossi suffered a repeat injury.

The major setback means that Rossi will not be able to feature for Italy in Euro 2012. He is set to undergo more surgery in the next few days.

The news comes just a few days after the much in-demand forward said that he could envisage a future away from the struggling Villarreal.

You never know what's going to happen in your career. One day you're here, one day you're somewhere else, Rossi said, according to Goal.com.

Obviously it's an idea which is nice because I think many players would like to play in the best leagues in the world. That's La Liga; that's the Premier League, and that's Serie A.

Like I said, you never know what's going to happen in football.

Rossi, who still maintained hopes of returning to the Azzurri squad for the summer also talked before his setback about the difficulty of returning to fitness.

I'm feeling better physically. It's been about five months that I've been out, so therefore I'm slowly getting back into shape, he said, according to Goal.com.

Mentally it's been tough because I'm used to playing week in, week out. So it's been difficult. I've had a lot of support from my club, my team-mates and from my family. They helped a lot with that.