The Sunderland and Scotland goalkeeper Craig Gordon will miss the start of the new season after breaking his arm for the second time.

The 27-year-old Scotland international underwent surgery last night after suffering the fracture in the lower part of his arm in training yesterday. It is a repeat of the break he sustained last November following a challenge from the Tottenham striker Jermain Defoe, but on this occasion noo other player was involved.

"Unfortunately, Craig has had a recurrence of the last injury he had, which is a broken wrist," said Sunderland's assistant manager, Eric Black. "He fell rather innocuously yesterday in training and suffered the fracture.

"He was on the ground, we were just throwing and catching as part of the warm-up. I was over with the outfield players and he just went down on it and I could see straight away there was something wrong – and he knew straight away, he heard it. He was operated on last night, he has come through the operation and the surgeon is really happy with it.

"Craig is very comfortable with it, but obviously he is now going to miss the start of the season and unfortunately, we don't at this moment in time have a real definitive timescale for when he will be back."

Gordon, who became Britain's most expensive keeper when he joined the Black Cats from Hearts for £9m in August 2007, had operations on his arm and a hernia during the summer and was approaching full fitness when misfortune struck once again.

Today's news is as disappointing for his country as it is for his club, with the Edinburgh-born player having returned to his best form during the second half of last season.

Sunderland launch their new league campaign against Birmingham at the Stadium of Light on 14 August, while Scotland open their European Championship qualifying campaign with games against Lithuania and Liechtenstein in September.

Bruce is considering his options with Hungary international Marton Fulop, who spent the final three games of last season on an emergency loan at Manchester City, having made little secret of his desire to move on. That would leave the Wearsiders with just the 22-year-old Northern Irishman Trevor Carson and summer signing Simon Mignolet, 21, at their disposal.

Black said: "It's a massive disappointment, it's a real blow, obviously more for the player, but certainly for ourselves. It's just another problem that has to be solved and we will have to consider various options over the next couple of days."

The Scotland manager, Craig Levein, was disappointed to lose a player he described as the country's "talisman". Levein said: "It is obviously very disappointing to lose a goalkeeper of Craig's calibre for such a significant part of the campaign.

"I am as disappointed for the player himself as I am for the country because I know how hard he has worked to overcome a series of injuries. "Craig has been an exceptional goalkeeper for Scotland – a talisman in fact – and I think after getting a metal plate inserted in his arm last season, he was getting back to his best form for Sunderland.

Gordon missed much of the 2008-09 season with a knee injury, and almost three months of last season after breaking his arm against Spurs. "It's a real blow personally as I feel I was really starting to discover my best form for Sunderland after what's been a really difficult time with injuries over the past couple of years," he said at the time.