The Warriors are confident unlucky second-rower Ben Henry has the strength of character to bounce back from a third serious knee injury in his short NRL career.

Henry is set to have surgery on Wednesday after damaging the patella in his left leg in the Warriors’ 34-26 loss to Wests Tigers at the weekend.

The match at Campbelltown was his first in the NRL since a season-ending injury last March.

Coach Andrew McFadden says he can’t confirm how long Henry will be out, but “it’s going to be a while”.

McFadden says having to go through another operation and lengthy recovery will be tough for the one-Test Kiwi.

But he describes Henry as a level-headed and intelligent person.

“There’s no doubt it’s difficult for him to deal with at the moment – he had done all the work, he was fit,” he said.

“Some players get this happen to them and unfortunately he is one of the unlucky ones, but I do know about the quality of character that he is and he’ll bounce back.”

Warriors head of athletic performance Balin Cupples said scans hadn’t fully confirmed the nature of the damage and surgery was expected to shed more light.

“The initial diagnosis was damage to his patella but the full extent of it or how long he’ll be out for won’t be known until after the operation has been done,” Cupples said.

Henry, 24, made his first-grade debut as a centre at the start of 2012, but has managed just 52 appearances.

His first major injury came in a training mishap in May 2013 and ended that season for him.

He played 16 matches in 2014, but only four last year after suffering another serious injury against Brisbane at Mt Smart.