Pep Guardiola on Man City injuries, Nico O’Reilly’s continued rise and ‘excellent’ Adam Wharton | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola says Man City’s injury crisis remains ahead of the game against Crystal Palace but backed the versatile Nico O’Reilly to continue to shine.

It has been a season to forget by City’s standards, with the club currently sixth in the Premier League and knocked out of Europe. They do remain in the FA Cup, however, with a semi-final against Nottingham Forest later this month.

Injuries have not helped matters and on the long list of injured players at the club Guardiola said: “Still injured, they are still injured.

“It’s happened all season. We adapt. And you can see that the position you’re in is a disaster, and it could be worse. We don’t have the squad, all season, we have three central defenders out, we have our main striker out.”

Nathan Ake, John Stones, Manuel Akanji, Erling Haaland and Rodri remained sidelined through injury for Guardiola’s side.

But one positive for the Cityzens will be Nico O’Reilly’s rise to the fore. City’s latest academy graduate has started their last two matches at left-back. Whilst the player describes himself as a box-to-box midfielder, Guardiola said: “He’s box-to-box, he’s side-to-side, he can do it with the same power, but on the side.”

Clearly, O’Reilly is in consideration as a ready-made replacement for the upcoming Kevin De Bruyne shaped hole in City’s midfield. With City hosting Crystal Palace on Saturday, Pep Guardiola may have indicated his intent to look further away than the City academy for new midfield recruits.

The club have been linked with a move for Palace’s Adam Wharton and asked about the midfielder, Guardiola said: “An excellent holding midfielder. He was in the national team already. The impact has been really good coming from the Championship to the Premier League, brilliant left-foot, a really good player.”

No matter what happens on Saturday against Crystal Palace, Guardiola says he still takes positives from City’s season: “I’m really satisfied for the way we handled it, for the situations we have been, being who we are; having the chance to qualify for the Champions League next season. This is what we have to do, especially in our home games – away as well, but especially at home.”