Manchester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne shall be sidelined doubtlessly for as much as 4 months due to a recurrence of his hamstring harm, an enormous blow to the crew’s ambitions of retaining the Premier League and Champions League.
City supervisor Pep Guardiola lower a downcast determine as he gave the prognosis on De Bruyne and mentioned a choice was but to be made about whether or not the Belgium captain requires surgical procedure.
An operation would maintain him out for “three or four months,” Guardiola mentioned.
“I have to say, the injury for Kevin is a sore blow for us, so he’s a big loss,” Guardiola mentioned at a news convention forward of the UEFA Super Cup in opposition to Sevilla going down in Greece on Wednesday.
De Bruyne to overlook UEFA Super Cup with harm
“Kevin has specific qualities that you can lose for one game, two games, but for a long time is really, really tough for us.”
De Bruyne got here off with the hamstring harm halfway by means of the primary half of City’s opening Premier League recreation, a 3-0 win at Burnley on Friday.
It is identical downside that compelled the 32-year-old De Bruyne to be substituted in the course of the Champions League remaining win in opposition to Inter Milan in June.
He didn’t play a single minute of preseason and made his return as a second-half substitute within the Community Shield on August 6, when City misplaced to Arsenal in a penalty shootout.
De Bruyne was a shock starter in opposition to Burnley and captained his crew. He lasted 23 minutes at Turf Moor, the place seemingly out of nothing he signaled to the bench that he had felt one thing.
Asked if the harm was right down to dangerous luck or De Bruyne returning too quickly, Guardiola answered again: “Give me 25 days of preparation and he will not be injured.
“Before I take the decision, I spoke to the doctors, the physios, with him and he told me, ‘I feel good, I feel good.’ So, I said, ’OK, it’s better to start then halftime (take him off). But unfortunately it happened.”
De Bruyne appears set to overlook City’s total Champions League group stage and doubtlessly December’s Club World Cup on prime of home issues.
It may power City, which has seen Ilkay Gundogan and Riyad Mahrez depart this offseason, into the switch market. The crew has been linked with a transfer for West Ham’s Brazil midfielder Lucas Paqueta.
In the meantime, Phil Foden appears primed to step up in De Bruyne’s attacking midfield position, even when they’re two very totally different gamers.
“We will see,” Guardiola mentioned. “After what happened, we haven’t talked with Txiki (Begiristain, City’s sporting director).
The severity of De Bruyne’s injury came as a surprise to City teammate Rodri.
“Well, I didn’t know it was that much, honestly,” he mentioned. “What can I say? I mean, he is one of the most important players of the club. For sure we are going to miss him a lot. We are going to try to support him in this bad moment. No one wants injuries.
“I saw him the other day and he was positive, he wants to come back (quickly). He’s an experienced player. He knows he doesn’t have to run fast to come back. He has to recover — that’s the most important part.”
City shall be enjoying for the primary time within the Super Cup, a match between the winners of final season’s Champions League and Europa League being held this 12 months on the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium in Piraeus.
Sevilla shall be enjoying within the Super Cup for the seventh time and has solely gained it as soon as, again in 2006 in opposition to Barcelona.
Midfielder Fernando, a former City participant, has been unnoticed of the squad due to a virus. Defenders Marcao and Tanguy Nianzou had been already lacking.
Source: sportstar.thehindu.com