The 31-year-old Briton, who became the first woman to win Olympic boxing gold when she came out on top in the flyweight division at London 2012, will have the operation in the next two weeks to repair an injury to her left shoulder.

The British Amateur Boxing Association (BABA) said the injury has been troubling her since the start of the year.

Adams is expected to be out of the ring for four to six months.

"I struggled through the Commonwealth Games so winning gold for England meant even more to me knowing I was not competing at my best," said Adams of her Glasgow 2014 gold earlier this month.

"Choosing to have the operation now was not an easy decision.

"I am gutted not to be taking part in the World Championships, as I know everyone was behind me, but having the operation now will mean I have longer to recover and will be able to return fitter and stronger.

"I would like to thank everyone at GB Boxing and the public for all of their support."

Nicola Adams said she struggled through her boxing bouts in Glasgow to win Commonwealth gold earlier this month ©Getty Images



The Championships, which were originally due to be held in the Canadian city of Edmonton, will instead be in Jeju City, South Korea from November 13 to 25.

Before her win at the Commonwealth Games, Adams suffered a shock quarter-final defeat at June's European Boxing Confederation Women's Boxing Championships in the Romanian capital Bucharest.

It was her first loss in more than two years.

BABA performance director Rob McCracken said: "Twenty fourteen is a very busy year for the women with three big tournaments and the medical staff have done a great job of managing the injury for over six months now, however, it became apparent during the Commonwealth Games that Nicola's shoulder was deteriorating as the competition went on.

"Nicola did extremely well to still win the gold medal however we were not confident her shoulder would stand-up to another two-week competition (in November) so decided it was better to have the operation now.

"The Rio Olympics is our top priority and we want to ensure Nicola is recovered and back to full fitness come 2016."