"To think that I won't be playing football until August is pretty hard to take," Kavanagh told the Western Mail
"The surgeon said I could carry on playing for another two or three weeks because it wouldn't make the injury any worse. But I knew I wouldn't be able to do myself justice or give my best for the team, so I've decided to have the operation now.
"There are only six or seven weeks left of this season. If I get the ankle sorted out now rather than wait then I will be ready for the start of next season, which will be a massive one for this club."
Kav was initially hurt when playing for Ireland, he was fouled by QPR's Marc Bircham and had to be subbed just 10 minutes into his Irish return. Kav missed 6 weeks of the season then. He has been in pain with the ankle and last week was unable to train.
"I had a scan on my ankle and it showed there was a build-up of scar tissue," Kav continued
"The problem was getting aggravated because I was playing. The scar tissue was getting thicker and thicker.
"In the end, the ankle was not allowing me to move freely and last Monday the pain was so severe that I had to pull out of training.
"When I got the results of the scan I was quite relieved, because I knew there was definitely something wrong with the ankle and I knew what it was.
"Now I'm focusing on being 100 per cent right for next season. The surgeon said if I have the operation done now, then I might have a chance to play in the last couple matches of the season but there's no point me rushing back."
Tony Vidmar has taken over the captaincy and Kav's place last Saturday against Norwich was taken by Gareth Whalley. Cardiff also have new signing Lee Bullock available. Bullock was not in the 16 on Saturday but could feature against Reading tomorrow.