Ferran Torres injury: How long is the City striker out for, which games will he miss & who will replace him?

Ferran Torres is set to be out for over a month with a foot injury he sustained while on international duty.

As reported by Spanish outlet AS, the striker is expected to be unavailable for around six weeks with a ‘small fracture’ in his right foot.

Tories picked up the injury in Spain’s 2-1 Nations League semi-final win over Italy, which forced him to be withdrawn.

However, the Manchester City forward started in the final four days later, somewhat surprisingly given the latest update on the 21-year-old.

What have City said?

The news of the injury broke on Thursday afternoon and a few hours later the club released an official statement on their website saying: “Ferran Torres has suffered an injury to his right foot whilst on international duty.

“He has since returned to Manchester for tests and will continue to be monitored.”

Which games will Torres miss?

He will almost certainly miss all the games in between the October and November international breaks.

That includes Premier League clashes against Burnley, Brighton & Hove Albion, Crystal Palace and Manchester United.

But Torres will also miss the Champions League home and away group games against Club Brugge, as well as the League Cup last-16 tie against West Ham United.

The earliest the Spanish international could expect to be fit for is the home league clash against Everton on 21 November, although even that seems ambitious at present.

Who could play up front?

Torres has played mainly as a central striker this season and, given Pep Guardiola views Gabriel Jesus as more of a winger, it leaves City without a recognised centre-forward.

Jesus can, of course, fill that position, while Raheem Sterling and Jack Grealish have been deployed there in recent weeks.

Without Torres, Guardiola could be tempted to revert back to the system he largely operated with in the latter half of 2020/21, when City played without a striker.

Do City have any other injuries?

Torres is the third City player to be struggling with a problem. Ilkay Gundogan hasn’t played in nearly a month with a hamstring injury, while Oleksandr Zinchenko has played the full 90 minutes just once this season for City due to an ongoing problem, although the defender did post a positive update on his Instagram account last week.