Guardiola provides fitness update on Savinho, Foden and Rodrigo | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola gave an update on the fitness of Savinho and Phil Foden at his post-Brentford press conference.

Brazilian winger Savinho was forced to come off in the closing stages of the 2-1 win over the Bees with what initially looked a muscle problem.

Though the boss admitted he hadn’t confirmed as much with the Club doctor, he says he is hopeful it isn’t a major issue.

“It looks like cramp,” said Pep. “I didn’t speak to the doctor; we will see.”And the Catalan also had encouraging news on Phil Foden, who has missed the past three games with illness.

Foden won the PFA Player of the Year, Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year and the Etihad Player of the Season, scoring 27 goals from 52 appearances during a stellar 2023/24 campaign.

Now, according to Guardiola, the England star is closing on a City return.

“He didn’t train too many sessions,” he said.

“Step by step. I am delighted he is back. We need him desperately and it’s important for us that he is back.

“He has trained this week. The game was tight, and I decided to use other options.”

Finally, the boss also says he was delighted with Rodrigo’s second-half return against Brentford.

The Spaniard had an exhausting last season for club and country and was given an extended break before returning to training and now appears to be rested and ready to go again,

“He came on and played really well,” said Pep.

“He has been injured, played a few minutes for the national team and today played his first 45 for us.

“He said he felt good. Rodri is so important for us. Kova has been amazing, and Rodri cannot play all the minutes, so we rotate.

“We need that. It was important that Gundo had extra minute and Kyle had his first minutes, John (Stones), too.”

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