Pep Guardiola has made an alarming admission about the mounting injury situation at Manchester City, revealing the club to be in “real difficulties” due to the amount of issues.
City have utterly dominated the Premier League in recent years, with enviable squad depth a huge factor in their ability to mount challenges across multiple competitions.
City have nine known injury problems, but Guardiola stated after Wednesday night’s Carabao Cup defeat to Tottenham Hotspur that “most” players finish every game with fitness worries.
Manuel Akanji was injured in the pre-game warm-up against Spurs, while Savinho was stretchered off on the second half. Ruben Dias then became latest concern following the game.
“We have 13 players [with injury problems], we are in real difficulties,” Guardiola said.
“The guys that play, they finish most of them with problems and we’ll see how they recover. I think we are in trouble, because in nine years we’ve never been in the situation with so many injuries.
“The players make a step forward, more together than ever, and we will try to do this week in this short time of recovery.”
Rodri attended this week’s Ballon d’Or ceremony in Paris on crutches after undergoing surgery on an ACL injury last month. Kevin De Bruyne, Kyle Walker, Jack Grealish, Jeremy Doku, Josko Gvardiol and Oscar Bobb are other players currently sidelined.
Although Guardiola would have been expected to make changes from his most senior lineup for the cup ties, Nico O’Reilly and James McAtee both started in a largely inexperienced XI. Jacob Wright and Jahmai Simpson-Pusey later came off the bench, with Farid Alfa-Ruprecht unused.
City travel to Bournemouth in the Premier League on Saturday, with a midweek trip to Lisbon against Sporting CP in the Champions League three days later and then quickly back to the English south coast against Brighton & Hove Albion on November 9.
