Manchester City have been hit with a few injury issues this season.
For instance, the Blues have seen the likes of Oscar Bobb, Nathan Ake and Kevin De Bruyne pick up injuries over the past couple of months.
Most recently, City saw Rodri get forced off the pitch with a suspected injury in the first half of Sunday’s 2-2 draw with Arsenal.
In fact, it has since been reported that this knee injury will keep Rodri sidelined for the remainder of the season having damaged his ACL.
The Arsenal game was only the midfielder’s second Premier League appearance of the campaign after recovering from a hamstring issue in the first few weeks.
In the previous league campaign, the 28-year-old ended the season with the highest total of shot-creating actions (157), tackles won (43), aerial duels won (54) and recoveries (235) at the Manchester club.
Following the news of this latest injury blow, a pundit has highlighted one figure in the City squad who he thinks could be a suitable replacement for the injured Spaniard.
- READ MORE: Who is Rodri? Get to know Man City’s modest midfield maestro who won a Champions League final
Chris Sutton backs Mateo Kovacic to replace Rodri after big injury blow
When asked in a recent episode of The Monday Night Club if he thinks Mateo Kovacic could fill the role left in Rodri’s absence, Chris Sutton said this in response.
He said: “Yeah, look, I don’t think anybody can fill that role like Rodri, but I think Kovacic is an able replacement out there.
“I think Manchester City, you have seen in the past, they will find a way of coping. They always do.”
Kovacic will have a big job on his hands to replace Rodri
So far this season, Kovacic has started four of City’s five league games, with the Arsenal clash being the first time he was on the substitutes bench.
After Rodri was taken off injured, the Croatian came on and eventually went on to play a key role in John Stones’ late equaliser to rescue a point for Pep Guardiola’s side.
Across his league appearances this term, Kovacic has racked up the joint-highest passing accuracy percentage (95.2%) out of players who have made more than four passes.
He also has the highest number of successful tackles (8) and joint-highest total of carries into the final third (21).
This shows how useful he can be on and off the ball, as Rodri proved himself to be last season, making it easy to see why Sutton thinks he could do an effective job for City in the Spaniard’s absence moving forward.
