John Stones will be heading back to the treatment room so soon after just returning to the squad from a hip injury.
What is Stones’ injury?
Stones suffered a hip injury in early August that put him out on the sidelines for six weeks. Stones made his return off the bench in Manchester City’s 1-0 defeat to Arsenal last month. Just as the centre-back was building some momentum in his game time, he felt his hip go again during the Champions League match against Young Boys and came off at half-time.
This will not just be a concern to Pep Guardiola but to Gareth Southgate as Stones was probably in the November squad that Southgate is set to announce on Thursday – enforcing a late change to the England squad.
Stones will be hoping this hip injury isn’t too persistent as I’m sure he’d like to get some minutes within the England team with the EUROS coming up in June.
What’s been said about the injury?
In his post-match interview, Guardiola was asked in regards to Stones making way at the interval.
He said: “And John felt [his injury] again. I feel so sorry for him because he’s so incredibly professional and his commitment again. It is a big loss for us. John is so important for what he does but he will recover and the season is long and he will be back stronger.
“I think he will be out for a while.”
Stones wasn’t the only City defender to feel some discomfort as Manuel Akanji had to pull out from the line-up during the pre-match warm-ups.
Guardiola said: “Manu had a problem in the back. It was blocked and I don’t know what happened but he was out.”
What’s next for Manchester City
Manchester City travel to Stamford Bridge on Sunday afternoon (Sky Sports Premier League, 4:30pm) to face Chelsea – the last game before the international break. After the break they host Liverpool (TNT Sports, Saturday 25th November, 12:30pm) in a game that could have early repercussions on the league table come May.
Hopefully all these defensive injuries don’t hurt City’s chances of fighting for their 4th consecutive league title.
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