Pep Guardiola admits urgent concern over Manchester City squad ahead of crunch fixture schedule | OneFootball

Manchester City’s growing injury list and limited first-team matchday options is a cause of concern for manager Pep Guardiola, he has admitted this week.

The Premier League champions had already been struck by two long-term injuries before the season had even reached its most hectic phase, as Oscar Bobb was ruled out prior to the opening contest of the campaign through a broken bone in his leg.

Sidelined until the early months of 2025, Manchester City were then faced with the prospect of almost an entire season without their mainstay defensive midfielder Rodri, after the Spaniard sustained anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus damage against Arsenal in September.

But with Nathan Ake returning and Kevin De Bruyne closing in on a return despite not yet feeling 100 per cent match-ready, problems have continued to emerge over the last few weeks for Pep Guardiola and his staff.

The October international break concluded with Kyle Walker suffering from a knee problem, whilst a 1-2 win over Wolves and the immediate training session that followed brought about an injury to Jeremy Doku and Jack Grealish.

Speaking during preparations for Manchester City’s home contest against Southampton on Saturday afternoon, Pep Guardiola explained that the growing list of injury problems facing himself and his coaching staff is causing concern.

“For one game, two games, it’s fine. For a long, maybe three games, now we have a tough period, after this game we have four days but after it’s three days to Bournemouth – knowing how difficult and demanding it is,” Guardiola began.

“Going to Lisbon for three days, and after we come back and after three days we go to Brighton. So it’s just 14, 15 players, yeah of course I am (concerned). But… I said last season, if it would be easy, one team would win four in a row, this is the challenge.”

He continued, “Every season there are difficulties, we had it in the past with important players injured all season like this season unfortunately with Rodri. But that is what it is. Perfect scenarios never, ever exist in sport. Never, ever.”

Manchester City face a crunch run of four consecutive fixtures away from home after the clash against Southampton, with such contests spread across three different competitions in the Carabao Cup fourth round, UEFA Champions League, and Premier League.

Jeremy Doku is expected to be absent for all such matches, with Pep Guardiola revealing earlier this week that the Belgian could face up to a month on the sidelines with no return for the club until after the international break.

Jack Grealish remains likely to make a return to some form of action across the next four matches however, with his injury not as serious despite missing the meetings against Sparta Prague and Southampton at the Etihad Stadium.