Luckless Man City suffer two fresh injury blows vs Spurs as Pep Guardiola plea goes unanswered

Add as preferred source on Google

The queue for the Manchester City treatment room has got even longer as Pep Guardiola was handed another double injury blow before and during his side’s Carabao Cup tie against Tottenham.

Guardiola was forced to prepare for the last-16 clash at Spurs without six key first-team players, including the freshly-crowned Ballon d’Or winner Rodri, who is recovering from a season-ending knee injury.

Kevin de Bruyne is another big-name absentee, with Guardiola confirming this week that he does not know when the Belgian will return from his current hamstring issue.

Guardiola made six changes to his side that beat Southampton 1-0 at the weekend for tonight’s clash, but was then forced into another late, late change prior to kick-off.

Man City suffer injury in warm-up

Manuel Akanji was one of the five players who had kept his place in the Man City team, but the Swiss defender had to be taken out of Guardiola’s starting line-up after suffering an injury in the warm-up.

Ruben Dias was drafted into the starting XI off the bench to replace Akanji, with Guardiola likely to provide an update on the 29-year-old following the match.

City then feared that youngster Nico O’Reilly had suffered an injury after he went down in pain during the first-half, but he was fortunately able to continue after receiving treatment.

Savinho stretchered off as Guardiola’s pre-match plea falls goes unanswered

It got even worse for Guardiola in the second half at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, as summer signing Savinho became City’s eighth injured player.

The Brazilian was carried off on a stretcher just after the hour mark after going down following what initially looked to be a fairly innocuous challenge when Destiny Udogie attempted to block a cross.

It quickly became clear that Savinho was in significant discomfort with what appears to be an ankle issue. Again, Guardiola is likely to give an initial update following the match.

Speaking in his pre-match press conference on Tuesday, Guardiola went as far as telling the media that getting through the match without any more injuries was one of his key objectives in north London.

“Perform well, this is what I want, no injuries please and go to the last week before the international break in November,” he said.

“If these guys don’t come back as quick as possible, we will struggle,” he added. “We cannot sustain with just 14, 15 players for the season. Hopefully it can happen after the international break.”

While we wait to learn the extent of Akanji and Savinho’s issues, the pair join Rodri, De Bruyne, Kyle Walker, Oscar Bobb, Jack Grealish and Jeremy Doku on the Man City injury list.

Next up for the Premier League champions is a trip to Bournemouth on Saturday afternoon, with a Champions League trip to Sporting following on Tuesday evening and then Brighton away next weekend.