The forward – who signed a permanent deal this summer – had a knee tidy-up two weeks ago and is expected to return in four-to-six weeks.
Murphy said: “Anytime he would train near the end of the last campaign, his knee would swell up but he had no pain though. Jordan was a warrior for the team towards the end of the season and wanted to keep playing.
“But after further investigations into his knee, we found he needed a knee clean-up and repair.
“So it’s a six-to-eight week job and we’re about two weeks into that now. Hopefully, he’ll be back in time for the start of the league campaign.”
Meanwhile, experienced duo Matty Douglas (broken wrist) and Brennan Dickenson (torn hip flexor) are progressing well.
Murphy added: “The surgeon doesn’t want to see Brennan again, so that’s good news. But he’s probably still out until about September time.
“Matty can’t do any contact at the moment, it’s a bit early and no point in risking him.”
The gaffer confirmed that it’s unlikely defender Jack Brydon will pen a new deal. If that’s the case then the centre back will join Harry Cochrane and Adam Brooks exiting Palmerston.
Explaining the Brooks and Cochrane departures, Murphy said: “There was a substantial offer from Crusaders to Adam that we didn’t know then.
“We put an offer to Adam and he was going to be happy to sign but obviously his agent was doing more work in the background and he’s got a move to Ireland.
“Harry was a different one because of budgets and players we already offered contracts to, I wasn’t in the position to offer more.
“He has been excellent for us and I would’ve liked to have kept him potentially but I wasn’t in that position at that time. We couldn’t really offer him anything more.
“But we’ll keep an eye on the situation, it’s not a definite closed door with Harry but it doesn’t look likely.”
On any potential new signings in the next week, Murphy added: “We’ll probably not have anyone new in the next week but there’s plenty of work going on. It has to be the right player for us.
“We’re not in a rush to sign unlike last season where we were to get a squad together. We’ve got a nucleus of a squad, a few more and that.”
Murphy’s mixed squad of first teamers, youth players and trialists enjoyed a comfortable 3-1 victory over Glenafton Athletic on Tuesday night.
Probably the biggest battle of the night was off the pitch, with the 300-plus in attendance at New Cumnock trying to evade an army of midges throughout the 90 minutes.
On the pitch, Glenafton scored an early goal but Harry McLinden levelled. Reece Lyon put Queens ahead with a header and Benji Luissint slotted in his spot-kick.
Murphy left out Mikey Hewitt, Ross Stewart and new forward Kurtis Guthrie due to “stiffness”, but the trio should all be available for Saturday’s home friendlies against Workington Reds (kick-off at 2 pm) and Morton (Tuesday, 7.30 pm).
