Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola gave conflicting injury news ahead of Saturday’s Premier League match against Tottenham Hotspur.
Already without star midfielder Rodri for the rest of the season and Oscar Bobb until next year, Guardiola revealed on Friday that Mateo Kovacic would now be out for up to a month.
However, Guardiola also claimed that John Stones, Manuel Akanji and Nathan Ake were likely to be fit to face Spurs at the Etihad Stadium.
“Some of them (could be available), yes,” Guardiola said. ‘John trained well, Manu trained well. Nathan is going back to training, so we didn’t have center backs and now we have three.
‘Rubén (Días) is out but I hope he returns soon. Some players recover better.
‘These 10 days some players recovered a little. “I don’t know if they are ready to play the 90 minutes or play from the beginning, but watching the training and seeing their faces was a big boost for all of us.”
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola had mixed injury news on Friday.
City midfielder Mateo Kovacic out for three weeks to a month
Regarding Kovacic, Guardiola added: “It will take a while, three weeks or a month.” More or less.
‘Max Alleyne is not fit and was injured in the national team, England U20, because they overstepped our limits and came back injured.
‘The players go to the national team and train – U21 in the morning – afternoon with U20 after training two games. He is not fit, we will lose him. It is what it is.’
Jeremy Doku, Phil Foden and Jack Grealish are also understood to be in the running for City’s game against Spurs, although Guardiola did not mention them directly on Friday.
Kovacic had become a key man for City in a midfield role after Rodri suffered a serious knee injury in September.