Dodgers pitcher Walker Buehler to undergo season-ending surgery

Walker Buehler will not return for the Dodgers this season.

The team announced Monday that the pitcher, who has been out since June with an elbow injury, will undergo season-ending surgery next week.

The procedure will be performed by Dr. Neal ElAttrache.

Buehler suffered what the team called a flexor tendon strain in his right elbow during a start against the San Francisco Giants in June.

Buehler was shut down for six weeks — he also had an unrelated bone spur removed from his elbow during that time — and then began a throwing program late last month.

He had been hoping to return in some capacity for the stretch run and postseason, targeting a late-September return that might have given him a chance to at least pitch out of the bullpen in October.

However, those hopes have now been dashed, dealing the Dodgers’ pitching staff a major blow less than two months before the start of the playoffs.