ADEN- Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh was so severely injured in an assassination attempt that it is uncertain when he will return, Yemen Vice President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi has said.

Saleh was injured in an attack on his palace in early June and is receiving medical treatment in Saudi Arabia. Yemen has been shaken by months of protests against his three-decade rule.

Hadi told CNN in an interview that he saw Saleh immediately after the bomb attack and the Yemeni leader had a piece of wood between his ribs in his chest and burns to his face, arms and upper body.

Hadi said according to the doctors no one can tell when Saleh might return.

“Days, weeks, months,” he told CNN. “It could be months, this is a decision up to the doctors.”

Opposition officials meanwhile said that more than 300 government soldiers had defected, in a further blow to Saleh as he recovers from his injuries.

In a message sent through his foreign minister on state television Wednesday, Saleh called for dialogue with the opposition to implement a Gulf-brokered plan for a transfer of power.

Yemeni officials had said Saleh would make his first public appearance since the palace attack this week but Saleh’s media secretary Ahmad al-Sufi told Reuters the president’s plan to record a video message to be broadcast on state television had been delayed on the advice of his doctors.