Manchester City are taking on RB Leipzig tomorrow night in the Champions League and Pep Guardiola has a couple of key players return to training ahead of the game.
City are looking to make it five wins out of five in the group stage, and are seeking to secure top spot ahead of the German outfit.
City have already qualified for the knockout stages, but want to ensure they go through as group winners.
The international break wasn’t particularly good for City in terms of player fitness, but there is good news today with a couple of players returning to training…
Jack Grealish and Mateo Kovacic return to Manchester City training
City hosted Liverpool on Saturday at the Etihad Stadium and had several players missing.
Jack Grealish was nowhere to be seen, with it being confirmed that the England international could play due to illness.
There was also no Mateo Kovacic, with the £30 million signing having had to pull out of the Croatia squad with a quad injury.
Thankfully, both of these players were involved in the open section of City’s training ahead of the game with Leipzig, according to BBC Sport. John Stones was also involved, having returned to the bench against Liverpool.
Guardiola has suggested though that Stones isn’t quite ready to actually play yet.
One man who is seemingly still struggling is Matheus Nunes, who pulled out of the Portugal squad at the start of the international break. He was absent from the open section of training.
Boost for City with games about to come thick and fast
It is good news that Grealish is feeling better after missing the Liverpool clash, and also good to see Kovacic – whom City legend Paul Dickov believes has been ‘fantastic’ since signing – coming back into the picture.
It remains to be seen if either will start tomorrow night. You would imagine Guardiola will be keen to rotate a bit from the weekend, especially with qualification to the knockout stages already assured.
It would be handy for Grealish to get some minutes, with Jeremy Doku once again impressing against Liverpool. Doku has been praised for his display, with even Virgil van Dijk admitting he was difficult to defend against.
Pep needs as many of his players available as possible now, with as many as 10 games to be played before the end of the calendar year.
