Wales star Leigh Halfpenny has revealed that he is probably going to be out of rugby for around eight months after suffering a knee injury in the run-up to this year's Rugby World Cup.

Halfpenny injured his cruciate knee ligament during Wales'a Rugby World Cup warm-up against Italy and will undergo reconstructive knee surgery on Tuesday afternoon.

"It is a pretty straightforward operation, the surgeon has done many of them before," Halfpenny told the Daily Mail. "He has explained the timescale to me, which is six to eight months.

"Looking at the timescale it (playing in the Six Nations) is touch and go I guess. But for me now it is just taking one day at a time. I am having the operation, getting that done and then looking forward to getting back playing."

Ross Moriarty has been called up to Wales's 31-man squad after Eli Walker, Halfpenny's replacement, also had to drop out due to injury.