Two Manchester City academy stars named by Pep Guardiola as new first-team additions amid injury crisis | OneFootball

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has named two academy stars that could be brought into his first-team picture amid struggles with injury in the position.

Having struggled with injury and fitness problems throughout the course of the ongoing campaign, Manchester City recovered almost entirely during the opening days and weeks of 2025, only for matters to escalate further in the last few days.

All of Manuel Akanji, Nathan Ake, and John Stones have been ruled out and sidelined for a period of up to 11 weeks, while the former duo have also undergone surgery on muscular and foot problems respectively.

As for Stones, a decision was ultimately taken for the England international not to succumb to surgery on a thigh injury, instead seeing Manchester City allow for the defender to recover naturally over a period of time.

In the meantime, the Premier League champions still have numerous big matches to contend with and a top-four fight to engage with, while their hopes of silverware remain alive through the FA Cup and a quarter-final clash away to Bournemouth at the end of March.

Speaking during a recent press conference, Pep Guardiola was asked whether he has any existing names within his current Manchester City first-team set-up that could drop into defence given the ongoing problems with injury-induced absences.

“No,” Guardiola said. “Nico for the stature, but he’s just arrived, they don’t have time to adapt. Certain processes in one position change a lot. We have more problems in that position maybe.”

The 54-year-old continued by also naming two academy stars whom he holds in high regard as he said, “We have him (Nico), Jahmai (Simpson-Pusey), who plays a lot this season. We have Max Alleyne, we trust a lot in him.

“Two players from the academy that have been really well in the youth competition in midweek. We have three central defenders plus the two from the academy.”

Manchester City’s next outing sees the club take on Brighton & Hove Albion in the Premier League on Saturday afternoon hoping to make amends for their narrow defeat to third-placed Nottingham Forest last weekend.

The clash with Fabian Hurzeler’s impressive Seagulls will be the last outing for the Champions before the March international break, with competitive club action resuming following two weeks of national team commitments with a round of FA Cup matches.