Mets catching prospect Travis d’Arnaud won’t require surgery to fix a broken bone in his foot, and is expected to miss up to eight weeks according to Terry Collins. And while it’s clearly a setback to the Amazin’s and the highly touted centerpiece of the R.A. Dickey trade, it could have been even worse.

“There’s no surgery necessary. He’s in a boot. They want him to do as little as possible for awhile, let that mending start,’’ Collins said before they opened a nine-game homestand with last night’s tilt against Washington.

Asked for a ballpark estimate when d’Arnaud might return, Collins replied: “Eight weeks, maybe sooner.’’

The 24-year-old d’Arnaud – who was acquired from Toronto as part of the deal for the Cy Young Award-winning Dickey – got hit on the foot by a foul ball in the sixth inning of Triple-A Las Vegas’ 3-2 victory over Sacramento Wednesday night.

The Mets had announced that d’Arnaud suffered a non-displaced fracture of the first metatarsal of the left foot, and yesterday he saw doctors at the Hospital for Special Surgery yesterday in Manhattan to discern the severity of the injury.

A team spokesman said there was nothing else broken, and the young catcher was sent home and told to avoid weight-bearing for a month.

“Anytime they say it’s six-to-eight weeks, it could be sooner,’’ Collins told the Post. “It could be four; but even if it is, he’s not going to play for another two or three weeks, so I just said eight.’’