Evening Standard
·31 octobre 2024
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·31 octobre 2024
Champions dealing with injury crisis ahead of trip to south coast
Manchester City are dealing with an injury crisis ahead of their Premier League clash with Bournemouth on Saturday.
Pep Guardiola’s side were beaten 2-1 by Tottenham in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night and may have lost two more players for the trip to the south coast.
Savinho was stretchered off after Manuel Akankji pulled up in the warm-up, leading Guardiola to declare he had just “13 [outfield] players” and that his side were “in trouble”.
Kevin De Bruyne will not play before the international break in November, while none of Jack Grealish, Jeremy Doku and Kyle Walker are not expected back on Saturday.
"We have 13 players, we are in real difficulties," Guardiola said.
"The guys that play, they finish most of them with problems and we'll see how they recover.
"I think we are in trouble, because in nine years we've never been in the situation with so many injuries.
"The players make a step forward, more together than ever, and we will try to do this week in this short time of recovery."
Rodri and Oscar Bobb, meanwhile, are long-term absentees.
Clearly, that means options are limited for City, who could again rely heavily on their younger players to provide options from the bench.
The City boss, however, did confirm that Erling Haaland was rested only as a precaution.
“The plan was not to play today,” he said of the striker.
“We have not had much recovery [time] and it was a waste of energy."
Man City predicted XI: Ederson; Lewis, Stones, Dias, Ake; Kovacic, Gundogan, Silva; Foden, Haaland, Nunes
Doubts: Savinho, Gvardiol, Akanji
Injured: De Bruyne, Rodri, Grealish, Doku, Walker, Bobb
Time and date: 3pm GMT on Saturday 2 November 2024
Venue: Vitality Stadium (Dean Court)
TV channel and live stream: Not available in UK