Manchester City will face West Ham United in the Premier League this week and midfielder Kevin de Bruyne could miss this tie after failing to recover from his injury.
The playmaker has scored seven and assisted 16 goals in the 29 league games this season but he missed the Fulham match at the weekend due to a twinge in his leg.
The extent or seriousness of the injury was unclear but it looks like he won’t be ready to play in midweek as well. Pep Guardiola has revealed that the Belgian international has not yet started training which is why he is a doubt for the Hammers clash.
He told the pre-match press conference: “Kevin’s started to move but didn’t train with the team – we have training in a few hours, and we’ll see how they feel.”
Kevin de Bruyne is one of the star players for Manchester City but his absence wasn’t felt one bit against Fulham.
Julian Alvarez played in place of KDB and the 23-year-old scored a goal in the 2-1 win. In midweek, Alvarez will once again be in line to start alongside Gundogan but Pep Guardiola has the option to use Bernardo Silva in that role as well.
Silva has mostly played out on the right wing this season but the Portuguese international is more than capable of operating as the chief playmaker.
There’s no way Kevin de Bruyne will be risked if he is not fully fit because next week, Manchester City are scheduled to take on Real Madrid in the Champions League.
Yes, City want to hold onto the top spot in the EPL table but winning the UCL is perhaps much more important to Pep Guardiola right now and he will need all of his star players to be fully fit for the semis.
