No date was given for the surgery but the 21-year-old expects to be sidelined for the next three months, which would rule her out of the U.S. Open starting on August 30.
Clijsters, who celebrated her 21st birthday on Tuesday, had already withdrawn from Wimbledon, which gets under way later this month. She missed the French Open that ended at the weekend.
The Belgian has been out of action for more than a month, having pulled out of the German Open on May 6 after struggling to move past Spanish qualifier Marta Marrero in her opening match at the event.
Before that, Clijsters had not played a WTA event for seven weeks.
