Illness and injury meant Keinan Davis missed nearly a quarter of games during his loan spell with Watford last season – and before he has even kicked a ball after signing for Udinese the striker is injured and could be out for two months.

Reports in Italian newspaper Messaggero Veneto say that Davis has sustained a calf injury while training.

The story says that the injury “will need to be carefully evaluated in the next few days” although initial investigations suggest “a rupture of some muscle fibres, caused by excessive stress”.

Davis scored seven times in 34 appearances for Watford last season, but his start to the campaign was delayed after he suffered an illness that restricted his training – and that came after he had not had a full pre-season with Aston Villa.

He missed a couple of games in late October/early November, and then fell foul to the ‘hamstring curse’ that affected the Hornets at the turn of the year and missed two games in January.

A further problem with his hamstring meant he was absent for two more league games in April.

The 25-year-old completed a €2.3m switch to Udinese just before transfer deadline day, after having been linked with a move back to Vicarage Road.

There was also a suggestion that Udinese would loan Davis back to Watford, but both stories were pure speculation.

Udinese accepted that Davis would perhaps need a few weeks to reach match fitness after again not having a pre-season with Villa but the story in Messaggero Veneto says that plan “has now been ruined due to this injury”.

Now it seems that Davis will be out until November – which is a blow to Udinese having sold Beto to Everton and having summer signing Brenner ruled out until next year following surgery on a thigh injury.