Man City dealt fresh injury concerns as star players miss training - but Kevin De Bruyne returns

Jeremy Doku and Jack Grealish were shock omissions from Manchester City training on Tuesday, ahead of the Champions League clash against Sparta Prague.

The 2023 European champions host Prague in their third match of the new Champions League format, with City on four points from the previous two games. They’ll be hoping to extend that to seven when the Czech side come to the Etihad, although Sparta have earned the same number of points from their opening games of the campaign.

City could be without Doku for the match after the winger was not involved in training on Tuesday afternoon. The former Rennes star played 66 minutes in Sunday’s win over Wolverhampton Wanderers and was not mentioned by Pep Guardiola among the list of injured players in his pre-match press conference a few hours previously.

Grealish is in a similar boat having also played against Wolves, and the participation of both players in Wednesday’s game is uncertain.

While one Belgian was missing, another was among the group that trained at the City’s CFA base. Kevin De Bruyne has been out for over a month with a pelvis injury and has already been ruled out of the Sparta game.

Guardiola explained earlier that day that De Bruyne is still training but will only return to the team when he is 100 percent ready.

“It's not a big issue but he doesn't feel completely fine and Kevin is not 22 years old anymore,” explained the City boss. “He has to be fit completely for his football. He has to be completely comfortable or he cannot express his potential.

“He is training a little bit better. He said to me he still doesn't feel good, so take your time. He has to be [100% ready].”

Along with De Bruyne, Kyle Walker has been ruled out of Wednesday’s game with a knee and no timeframe has been set on when he will return to the team. Rodri and Oscar Bobb are the final players who will definitely miss the Champions League fixture, with both suffering from long-term problems.

Youngsters Jacob Wright, Nico O’Reilly, Farid Alfa-Ruprecht, Jaden Heskey and Emiliano Lawrence were also involved in Tuesday session and could play some part against Sparta.