Manchester City could discover today the extent of Kevin De Bruyne’s groin injury with Sunday’s heavyweight clash with Arsenal looming large.
The Belgium midfielder was taken off at half-time of last night’s 0-0 draw with Inter Milan at the Etihad and his availability for the weekend will depend on tests carried out this morning.
Boss Pep Guardiola said after the game: “I don’t know, I will have more info tomorrow [Thursday]. The doctor said to me he was not ready to play [in the second half].”
De Bruyne was at risk of coming off injury or not with Guardiola less than impressed by his first-half display.
“I was thinking about changing it at half-time anyway,” he added. “When you are alone and lose easy balls, it’s a counterattack – it’s impossible to stop it. You have to be more precise.
“It happened especially on the left side with Kevin. We lost the ball without pressure and when that happens they can kill you.”
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It was not all bad news for City, though, with midfield lynchpin Rodri making his first start of the season against Inter while Phil Foden also returned after missing most of the early weeks of the season through illness.
City’s weekend opponents will be without a key man in midfield as well with Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta confirming last night that captain Martin Odegaard will miss a significant amount of time after damaging ankle ligaments on international duty with Norway.