Pep Guardiola has confirmed Rodri will not play for Manchester City again this season after undergoing surgery on an anterior cruciate ligament injury.
Rodri went down in the opening stages of City’s 2-2 draw with Arsenal and it was quickly feared the Ballon d’Or candidate had suffered a serious injury which would keep him out for the foreseeable future.
City delayed revealing a formal diagnosis, but Guardiola has now confirmed an ACL injury will end Rodri’s season.
“Good surgery this morning, ACL and some meniscus, and so next season he will be here,” Guardiola said. “This season is over.
“Unfortunately we got the worst [news] but these things happen at this level. We will be there to support him in his recovery step-by-step and move forward.”
Replacing Rodri at the base of midfield will not be an easy task for Guardiola, but the boss backed the likes of Ilkay Gundogan and Mateo Kovacic to help steer City through the Spaniard’s absence.
“What he gives us, we don’t have a similar player,” he continued. “But the other players all together can replace what Rodri has given since his arrival to us. We will have to do it as a team and we have to find a way to play over lots of months without an important player for us.”
Asked whether he feels his current City squad are more capable of coping without Rodri than every before, Guardiola joked: “If we win, yeah. If we don’t win, it’s because we miss Rodri.
“There is not one day over the past few years that I was not confident [in the team’s ability to cope without Rodri]. Of course we are stronger with him, just like we’re stronger with Nathan Ake, we are stronger with Oscar Bobb and all the injuries, with Kevin [De Bruyne], that’s just how it is. We don’t want it, but it happens it football.
“It’s a long injury, eight or nine months, and after that you have to be careful for muscular injuries. When you have an ACL, after a year off, you have muscular problems. That’s why it’s longer. Rodri will become his best not just after nine months, but it is what it is.”
