Manchester City head coach Pep Guardiola has, on Friday evening, provided a fitness update on his squad.
This, of course, comes as the Sky Blues’ preparations for a crunch weekend outing enter their final stages.
Amid an ongoing pursuit of what would come as a historic treble, Guardiola and co. are primed to go toe-to-toe with arch-rivals Manchester United, in the finale of the FA Cup.
In turn, it no doubt came as a major source of concern for the City faithful, last weekend, upon word coming to the fore that a number of the club’s star performers were struggling for fitness.
Speaking on the back of his side’s Premier League final day meeting with Brighton & Hove Albion, Guardiola admitted that all of Jack Grealish, Kevin De Bruyne, Ruben Dias and Manuel Akanji were struggling with ‘niggles, not big injuries, but injuries’.
Leicester, UK. 29th Oct, 2022; The King Power Stadium, Leicester, Leicestershire, England; Premier League Football, Leicester City versus Manchester City; Pep Guardiola congratulates Kevin De Bruyne (Alamy Stock Photo)
During a final pre-match press conference on Friday, it therefore came as little surprise when the subject of his squad’s wellbeing was put to City’s boss once more.
‘They trained well the last two training sessions. They are more or less fine.’
Shot-stopper Ortega Moreno, meanwhile, is set to maintain his place between the posts:
Guardiola confirms Ortega Moreno is ‘going to play’ in tomorrows final. ‘I have always been like that in the FA Cup. At Barcelona and Bayern as well. The keeper who plays in the FA Cup is going to play.’#MCFC @EmiratesFACup
— Ben Dinnery (@BenDinnery) June 2, 2023
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