JAMES Tarkowski will see a specialist to determine whether his groin problem requires further surgery.

The Burnley defender had an operation in the summer to repair groin hernia - an injury which forced him to withdraw from England's five-man standby list for the World Cup.

But Tarkowski is struggling again with a similar complaint. And after having played through the problem in recent weeks a decision will be taken about whether he requires further treatment.

“Tarky is seeing a specialist today to find out whether he can continue with it or he’s going to need something doing," said manager Sean Dyche.

"Hernias are strange ones because you can kind of get away with it but it's how long you get away with it for and how much trouble it causes you. He's managed pretty well overall but I think it has affected him, which I think is why we've made a decision with him to see the specialist and go with what they decide."

But even if surgery is required, Dyche is hopeful of a quick recovery for the England centre half.

"Usually nowadays if all goes to plan they are pretty quick," he said.

"Surgery has come on a long way over the years so we're hopeful that it does the job and settles down quickly."

Meanwhile, Dyche expects to have both Phil Bardsley and Jack Cork available again for this weekend's game at Leicester City, but is without Ben Gibson, who has also had a second hernia operation.

"We're a little unfortunate. I said a week or so ago that we were getting back towards (full strength) and then we lost Phil Bardsley and Jack Cork last week. They should be back," he confirmed.

"Ben Gibson has had minor hernia surgery.

“We haven’t quite got back to having that full complement of players.

“We were close and then it’s gone away again so we are hoping whatever comes next games-wise after the international break, it looks like a more formed squad again, or there or thereabouts.

“So that we can go into the next period after the break with a full group of players who are all ready and all fit, so we’ll wait and see if that can occur.”

“What I’m waiting for and hoping for is everyone gets fit and then we have that in-house competitive element and then the games programme, of course.

“That would be a great marker, because if you look at it we haven’t had that all season yet.

“That’s a real marker when we can say ‘okay, where are we going with this now?

“Where are we as a group going?

“In the meantime, we are fighting hard and working hard to get points on the board to make sure we’re intact for that period when hopefully everyone gets a level playing field and we’re all fit and we’re all well.”

Asked if the international break would provide some respite in the circumstances with injuries, Dyche added: "I think the international break's more important this time around. The early ones (were) because of the game schedule we'd had; this one more because we're waiting for guys to recover from injuries to bring us back to a full complement again."