Inter Milan sustain major defensive injury blow to rule out star from Manchester City clash | OneFootball

Manchester City will take on an Inter Milan side partially depleted in the defensive area of the pitch after the Italian club sustained a fresh injury blow.

Pep Guardiola and his players embark on their hunt for a second UEFA Champions League crown this season, with the competition taking on a new look following changes made to the opening stage of the tournament.

Replacing the ‘group stage’, UEFA have now expanded their first round to take on a 36-team ‘league phase’, with all teams taking on eight matches across the coming months, with eight leading spots up for grabs for automatic qualification into the knock-out rounds.

For Manchester City, that has led to a challenging collection of matches, with their bow in the new-look competition featuring a meeting against their Champions League final opponents of 2023, Inter Milan.

Whilst City have their own injuries to contend with coming into the contest, a fresh blow has now been landed on the Italian giants, following their unbeaten start to a new Serie A season with two wins and two draws from their opening four matches.

That is according to the information of FCInterNews, who report that Inter wing-back Federico Dimarco will miss Wednesday night’s UEFA Champions League match against Manchester City, and is also a doubt for their derby meeting against AC Milan, after suffering a thigh strain.

Dimarco formed part of a five-man defensive set-up when outside of possession in the Champions League final in Istanbul, with Denzel Dumfries operating from the right wing-back role, and Bastoni, Acerbi, and Darmian taking up the three central defensive positions.

It remains to be seen how Simone Inzaghi will reshuffle his pack in light of Federico Dimarco’s absence, however it will likely see a change in the same position that the defender took on over in Turkey at the end of the 2022/23 campaign.

For Manchester City, they remain injury-free in the way of new concerns following their 2-1 win over Brentford, with Savinho’s late exit from the contest due to cramp, Pep Guardiola revealed after the game.

Nathan Ake is likely to remain ruled out until the next international break with a muscular problem, whilst Oscar Bobb is continuing to recover from a leg bone fracture sustained prior to the start of the new Premier League season.