South Sydney second-rower Kyle Turner will undergo neck surgery later this week.

Turner spent two nights in a Gold Coast hospital after leaving the field in the fourth minute of the Indigenous All Stars match after being hit high by All Stars captain Paul Gallen in a tackle.

The club initially said Turner’s condition was not serious, but he has been diagnosed with a protruding disc that was affecting his spinal cord.

The Rabbitohs premiership winner will undergo disc replacement surgery.

“Kyle sustained a pretty serious injury to his neck,” Rabbitohs high-performance manager Troy Thomson said.

“That tackle caused an acute injury to the disc in his neck and that’s actually protruding onto the spinal cord, so he had some fairly significant neurological conditions there down through his arms some pins and needles and tingling sensations.

“We took a long time to make a decision and we went through the process very thoroughly, saw the best surgeons in Australia and came to a decision just this week to go in and do a disc replacement.”

Turner will be out indefinitely but the Rabbitohs said they elected to have the 23-year-old have surgery in the interests of his long-term future.

“We feel that this is going to be the best for him in the long run,” Thompson said.

“He’ll get that surgery done later this week and well start the recovery process and get him back as quick as we can.”