RIO DE JANEIRO, March 31 (Xinhua) -- Gremio's Gilberto Silva, former star fullback at Panathinaikos-GRE and Arsena-ENG, underwent surgery on Saturday to correct his recently suffered broken nose.

Silva received a vicious elbow during his team's 4-0 win over Avenida on March 29 in the fifth round of the second half of the Rio Grande do Sul state championship. Unable to re-adjust his nose, the player was forced to correct the problem via surgery. He is expected to need one month to recover.

Silva is Gremio's third player to suffer a fracture in within one week. First, midfielder Kleber suffered a fractured right fibula on March 25 and is scheduled to miss the next five months of action. Additionally, Werley suffered a fractured rib in the same match as Silva's injury.

Gremio's head coach Vanderlei Luxemburgo demanded punishment for the authors of all three of his player's injuries. The coach also returned to threaten to withdraw Gremio from the 2013 state championship, claiming the competition was too violent.