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Manchester City will ‘fight’ to overcome injury crisis, says Guardiola

Posted on by Bobb
Manchester City will ‘fight’ to overcome injury crisis, says Guardiola

Pep Guardiola © Getty Images

Pep Guardiola believes Manchester City will struggle to overcome their growing injury crisis but urged the English champions to bounce back in Tuesday’s Champions League clash with Sporting Lisbon.

City travel to Portugal after successive defeats to Tottenham in the League Cup and to Bournemouth on Saturday, ending an 11-month unbeaten run in the Premier League.

Ballon d’Or winner Rodri, who is out for the rest of the season with a knee injury, heads a star-studded line-up of missing players in Guardiola’s squad, which also includes Oscar Bobb, Ruben Dias, Jack Grealish and John Stones.

Kevin De Bruyne could make his first appearance in seven weeks but is unlikely to start, while Kyle Walker, Nathan Ake, Manuel Akanji, Jeremy Doku and Savinho are also not fully fit.

“You know the situation with Rodri, nominated for best player in the world,” Guardiola said at his pre-match press conference on Monday.

“We know we’re going to have to struggle and we have to accept it and that’s okay.

“The games will be difficult; in previous seasons everything was smooth. Personal reasons, injuries, we won six Premier Leagues in seven years. The situation is changing, we must accept it.”

Guardiola will face one of his future rivals as Sporting coach Ruben Amorim takes charge of the Portuguese champions for the penultimate time before taking over as Manchester United manager.

The teams last met in the round of 16 of the 2021/22 Champions League, with City winning 5-0 in Lisbon on aggregate.

“They have changed players, but they have the same coach and the same mentality,” Guardiola added of the challenge Sporting posed to them.

“Winning the championship for the first time in 20 years and then repeating it last season shows what a good job he has done.”

Bernardo Silva scored twice in City’s 5-0 win over Sporting two years ago, returning to Lisbon where he began his career with Benfica.

He urged City not to make excuses despite their injury problems.

“With a full squad we are stronger, that cannot be denied. We are missing a lot of incredible players,” Silva said.

“We haven’t been able to count on Kevin for six weeks. Rodri is out for the season and other players are out for shorter periods. But we never make excuses. That’s never happened at this club.”

Both teams are unbeaten in the new Champions League format, having collected seven points from their first three matches.