I was never so angry as when Man City players picked up needless injuries - Pep Guardiola

Pep Guardiola has revealed he was furious that John Stones and Kyle Walker returned with injuries from international duty last season, claiming he has ‘never been so angry’.

Both had been a mainstay in the Manchester team prior to the March break earlier this year but after returning, Stones was an unused substitute in crucial matches against Arsenal and Aston Villa in the Premier League title run-in, with the latter coming a week prior to the Champions League quarter-final against Real Madrid.

Stones played in the first leg but was named as a substitute in the reverse fixture - which City lost on penalties and were ultimately eliminated.

As for Walker, he missed five games but was back for the second leg against Madrid. Six months on, and the issue clearly still resonates with Guardiola, who revealed in Tuesday’s press conference that Walker has returned again from October’s international matches with a knock.

While Guardiola doesn’t expect the injury to be serious, no timeframe has been set on Walker’s return and he will not be available to face Sparta Prague on Wednesday in the Champions League. The issue clearly opened up some fresh founds for the City boss.

“I was never so angry like that moment. Never before was I so disappointed,” he explained. “It was a friendly game and we're playing the quarter-finals against Madrid and the Premier League to win it and comes back two players injured from a friendly. [Tuts] I didn't like it at all.”

While it initially seemed Guardiola was criticising the FA, a subsequent answer that appeared to indicate that it was Stones who the subject of his fury.

“Before when I was a player, the national team manager calls the clubs. Now nobody talks. How they feel, how they are. Maybe the physios talk but the managers never. 

“In the first or second season with Gareth [Southgate] yes, but now no. Sometimes Ronald Koeman because he is a friend of mine. I know the players don't want to get injured, I always encourage them to go to the national team, it’s a pleasure, but if it’s a friendly game you cannot come back injured, I’m sorry. 

“If you are focused, if it is a friendly game you cannot come back injured when you are playing the quarter finals of the Champions League, because they put in a lot of work behind [the scenes]. 

“They are the first to make a lot of work to arrive in the last stages of the season with a chance to win the titles. We are well-paid here, the club pay us, not the national teams. Sometimes you have to respect the clubs.”