Raheem Sterling suffered a hamstring injury in Sunday’s Premier League defeat at Tottenham and now Pep Guardiola has revealed that the English international could be out for weeks instead of days.
The forward has been ruled out of this weekend’s match against West Ham United but he was expected to be fit to take on Leicester City after the international break.
Now though the City boss has claimed that Raheem Sterling could be on the sidelines for weeks.
Guardiola told a news conference: “Of course it takes weeks, but we will see before Leicester, Madrid and the rest of the games. I don’t know right now.
“It is a problem. [Injuries are] always a problem, but it is what it is.”
If Raheem Sterling is actually going to be out of action for a couple of weeks then it will be a real setback for Pep Guardiola since Man City take on Real Madrid in the Champions League at the end of the month.
While Leroy Sane has returned back to training but the City boss has made it clear that the German will not be rushed into the thick of things.
“He’s started to train with us, he is still not there,” he said of Leroy Sane.
“When you have an injury, especially this one for six months, you need to recover, tempo, rhythm, confidence in your knee, and don’t think about the injury.
“He needs time, it’s not a case of him training and he will then immediately be there, it’s not like an ankle or a muscular injury. This injury it needs time.
“He needs weeks. What’s important is the surgery was perfect and he’s recovering incredibly well, he’ll come back stronger than before but now he needs a little bit of time.”
So with both Sane and Raheem Sterling likely to miss the Real Madrid clash, it could be Gabriel Jesus who will play on the right flank for the next few games.
