Manchester City: Rodri 'out until mid-September' after suffering injury setback at Club World Cup | OneFootball

The Spaniard is set for yet another spell on the sidelines

Manchester City midfielder Rodri will be absent until mid-September after picking up a ‘big injury’ at the Club World Cup, Pep Guardiola has confirmed.

The Ballon d’Or winner, 29, missed most of last season after rupturing his ACL, returning to action with an eight-minute cameo in City’s penultimate Premier League outing.

He came off the bench with 53 minutes played to replace Ilkay Gundogan, but was withdrawn again in extra time with an apparent groin injury.

Speaking from City’s pre-season training camp, Guardiola said he would be out for several weeks.

"Rodri is getting better but he had a big injury in the last game against Al Hilal,” he said.

“He has trained better in the last few days, hopefully after the international break is when he will be really fit.

"Hopefully in these games he can play some minutes but what is important is he doesn't have pain because we don't want this Rodri coming back injured.

"We try desperately to avoid that. He has been training the last two sessions with us and that's good."

Rodri joins Phil Foden, Josko Gvardiol, and Claudio Echeverri in the physio’s room at City. None of the four have travelled to Italy for Saturday’s friendly clash with Palermo.

Guardiola’s midfield options are running thin, with Mateo Kovacic and Kalvin Phillips also both dealing with injuries. Nico O’Reilly, who signed a bumper City contract last week, has a knock, but travelled for the Palermo match.