The Tunisian international, who joined the Blues on a permanent deal during the close season, sustained knee ligament damage during the pre-season tour of Spain and is unlikely to play first team football this season. "He will be out for at least six or seven months, which takes us to around March, so we can virtually write him off for the season. "It's tough on Mehdi and fairly typical of what's happened to us. We've had five serious injuries to big players now in 12 months, which is obscene.
"We've had to wait a few weeks for the swelling in his knee to go down, that's the usual process," Bruce has said.