Rayan Cherki injury timeframe revealed in huge blow to Manchester City | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola and Manchester City will be without Rayan Cherki for all of their three mammoth upcoming games against Manchester United, Napoli, and Arsenal.

The setback comes at a difficult time for the Premier League giants, who slipped to a second consecutive league defeat on Sunday afternoon to add to a 0-2 loss to Tottenham at the Etihad Stadium last time out.

Manchester City were undone by a late Brighton strike at the Amex Stadium to throw-away their first-half lead thanks to Erling Haaland, leaving them with just three points from their opening three games of the 2025/26 season.

Despite the Norwegian giving the visitors the lead on his 100th Premier League appearance, Brighton responded through James Milner’s penalty before substitute Brajan Gruda snatched victory in the closing stages.

The result means Guardiola’s side enter a testing run of fixtures with confidence under strain, compounded further by fresh injury news. Rayan Cherki, who arrived this summer from Lyon, was ruled out of the Brighton clash due to a thigh problem.

Speaking after Manchester City’s 2-1 defeat to Brighton, Pep Guardiola was further quizzed on how long Cherki would be ruled out of action for after the Frenchman was ruled out of the south coast clash with a reported thigh injury.

Having revealed pre-match that Cherki would need “a little bit longer” to recover and return to action for the club, the Manchester City boss admitted after the game that the attacking midfielder would be out for two months.

Rayan Cherki’s absence leaves Pep Guardiola without a dynamic creative option heading into a daunting fixture schedule. Manchester City will host Manchester United in the first derby of the campaign, host Napoli for their opening Champions League league-phase clash, and then return to the Premier League away to rivals Arsenal.

This latest blow adds to a mounting set of questions around Guardiola’s squad with further late alterations expected in the final hours of the summer market, with Ederson commanding interest from Turkey, Manuel Akanji attracting Tottenham, and other exits being eyed.

With a number of players still working their way back to full fitness following long-term injuries, Guardiola could now be forced into reshaping his attacking midfield line across the coming weeks, with Phil Foden expected to shoulder greater creative responsibility when he returns from his own fitness issue.

Much will now depend on how quickly Manchester City can re-establish rhythm after consecutive defeats, with Pep Guardiola insisting last week that he still believes his side will “do a good season”.