Rodri offers fresh update on Manchester City injury recover process after Super Bowl visit | OneFootball

Manchester City midfielder Rodri has offered a fresh update on his ongoing recovery from a serious knee injury, this time after a visit to the USA for the Super Bowl.

The 2024 Ballon d’Or winner has been ruled out of action for Pep Guardiola’s side since the tail-end of September after sustaining a double knee injury including damage to his anterior cruciate ligament.

Having undergone surgery on the matter, it was confirmed that Rodri would miss the majority of the ongoing competitive season, with a realistic aim of returning in some capacity for the FIFA Club World Cup in the summer, or perhaps even the next campaign.

Since then however, Rodri has been publicly optimistic over his chances of an earlier return and has appeared determined to come back to action for Manchester City and Spain before the end of the season, perhaps even in the UEFA Champions League or Premier League.

Speaking to Manchester City’s official club website, Rodri has now offered more immense positivity and optimism over his ongoing recovery process as well as the upsides to being away from the relentless first-team schedule for a prolonged period of time.

“I’m feeling very good. In my head, everything is fine. I don’t feel unstable in the knee. I need to get the strength in the quads and everything. That’s the most important thing,” Rodri explained while in the United States.

He continued, “One thing is what you think and another is what the body does, so you have to make sure that they connect again.

“I’m feeling good. In this kind of moment, I try to be positive and maybe do all the things you’re not used to – like coming here.

“I’m spending time with my family and working on parts of my body to come back stronger.”

For now, the struggles endured by Manchester City in light of Rodri’s absence have forced the club to take drastic action in the transfer market as part of a wider squad rebuild originally aimed for the upcoming summer window.

With limited options available at the midway stage of the season, Txiki Begiristain and his recruitment colleagues within the Etihad Stadium turned to FC Porto’s La Masia graduate, Nico Gonzalez in a €60 million operation that appears to have fit like a glove.

After completing his first full 90 minutes for Manchester City in a 4-0 win over Newcastle at the weekend, optimism around the club’s future performances with Nico at the base of midfield have grown and Guardiola himself labelled the 23-year-old as a “mini-Rodri”.