Pep Guardiola gives update on Jeremy Doku injury ahead of Champions League 'final' | OneFootball

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has conceded that Jeremy Doku is likely to be missing for "a while", ahead of big upcoming games in the Premier League and Champions League.

Doku had managed three goals and three assists across successive appearances against Salford City and Ipswich Town earlier this month. But he was absent through injury against Paris Saint-Germain last week and was again sidelined for Saturday's comeback win over Chelsea.

There is no definitive timeline on Doku's recovery, but he won't play against Club Brugge this week and will probably also not feature in next Sunday’s trip to Arsenal.

"A while. I don't know how much, but a while, yes. He will not be ready for Wednesday, for sure. I don't think so for Arsenal [either]. We'll see," Guardiola explained.

Although City have the depth to cover Doku's absence, the squad continues to deal with injuries defensively. That led to new 20-year-old signing Abdukodir Khusanov being thrust straight into the starting lineup against Chelsea with minimal preparation and enduring a nightmare debut.

"The problem is we continue with the problems. Khusanov should not have played; he had to take time to do it," the boss commented.

Abdukodir Khusanov received a baptism of fire / Alex Livesey - Danehouse/GettyImages

"It's not easy against Chelsea in the Premier League, coming from another country and not communicating much with his teammates and arriving with no training sessions to see what you want to do, what the process you have, and the other ones.

"To start in that way he started; imagine all of us living what Khusanov has lived and what happened happened, it would be, 'Oh God!'...but the situation is Ruben [Dias] is not there, Nathan [Ake] neither so we're lucky that Manu [Akanji] stayed and John [Stones] can help us for our final on Wednesday."

Guardiola is labelling the Brugge game a "final" because City's entire Champions League status for the season is riding on one 90-minute match.

Winning only two of their first seven games – and none of the last five – has left City outside the top 24 ahead of matchday eight. They must beat Brugge, who are three points ahead and fighting to stay in the knockout berths themselves, and hope other results also go in their favour to qualify.

At best, City can finish 19th, which would mean two additional games to play in the knockout round play-off. If they fail to claim three points against Brugge, City would be out of the Champions League before the knockout phase for the first time since the 2012/13 campaign.