SALT LAKE CITY (Legal Newsline)-Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff has been forced to cancel his upcoming trip to Israel as he recovers from emergency leg surgery this week, a spokesman said.

Shurtleff has been to Israel on several occasions to discuss law enforcement issues and to help establish an American-Israeli friendship club in Salt Lake City.

The attorney general will be released from the hospital in the next few days, but will continue intravenous antibiotics treatments for six more weeks, spokesman Paul Murphy told reporters.

Doctors believe Shurtleff is suffering from a staph infection in his leg.

He returned late Thursday from a conference of the National Association of Attorneys General in Providence, R.I., where his condition worsened. He asked his family to take him to the hospital Friday.

Shurtleff planned to leave for Israel on June 30, but because the IV medications can't be refrigerated, the trip is being canceled.

The Republican attorney general has undergone seven surgeries in the nine months since a serious motorcycle accident broke his leg in at least seven places.

He crashed on Sept. 22 while test-driving a Harley Davidson Road King motorcycle for the "Fall Ride for Fallen Officers" charity ride benefiting the Utah Law Enforcement Memorial Foundation.

From Legal Newsline: Reach reporter Chris Rizo by e-mail at chrisrizo@legalnewsline.com.