Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has provided a significant update on two of his most important first-team players during a new media conference this week.
The Premier League champions are desperate to bring an end to their seven-game winless run across competitions, and welcome Nottingham Forest to the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday night in a meeting between fifth and sixth in the division.
City come into the clash off the back of a 2-0 defeat to Liverpool at Anfield, with both Ruben Dias and Pep Guardiola taking positives from the performance, and the former believing that he saw true character from his teammates on Merseyside.
However, just as Manchester City appeared to be getting a stronger compliment of players back at the disposal of Pep Guardiola, the 53-year-old has issued new updates on the fitness of his squad, and a new problem for John Stones.
Speaking to the media during his pre-match press conference from the City Football Academy on Tuesday afternoon, Pep Guardiola said on the England international, “No, (he’s) not close. Still he’s injured.”
Guardiola continued, “He has a problem with his feet, and I don’t know (when he will be back), but not for, I would say, the next week.” Stones was replaced at the half-time interval of City’s recent 0-4 loss to Tottenham in the Premier League.
Elsewhere and Kevin De Bruyne continues to be selected for Manchester City action from the substitutes bench, and has not featured in any of Pep Guardiola’s starting line-ups since returning from a groin and abdomen problem last month.
“He is closer and even, even better, yeah,” Pep Guardiola was able to reveal on Tuesday. He continued, “The last few days he’s even better.”
It remains to be seen whether the improvements in Kevin De Bruyne’s fitness will be enough to convince Pep Guardiola that he is ready to start for Manchester City against Nottingham Forest on Wednesday evening.
It is another double game-week for the Premier League champions as they take on Crystal Palace on Saturday afternoon at Selhurst Park, and so the balancing of workload may come into Guardiola’s thinking when selecting a team to face Nuno Espirito Santo’s squad.
