Man City training: Defensive duo return but key man misses out ahead of Real Madrid second leg

Kyle Walker and Nathan Ake returned to Manchester City training on Tuesday, ahead of their Champions League semi-final second leg with Real Madrid.

Ahead of the trip to Spain, the Premier League champions completed their final pre-match session at the Etihad Campus, and had a 23-man squad involved in training.

Walker’s return is a huge boost, with the full-back missing the first leg and has not played since 13 April due to an ankle injury he picked up in the quarter-final second-leg draw away to Atletico Madrid.

As for Ake, he’s been managing an ankle injury over recent weeks and was forced to come off in the weekend win over Leeds United.

However, in more disappointing news, John Stones wasn’t part of the group that trained on Tuesday afternoon, putting his involvement in the second leg into doubt.

The former Everton man picked up a muscular knock in the recent win over Brighton & Hove Albion, which he exacerbated again last week in the first-leg win over Real.

Stones was replaced in the first half of that fixture, with Fernandinho deputising at right-back. But that shouldn’t be the case on Wednesday, with Joao Cancelo returning from a suspension that ruled him out of the first leg.

It means City will travel to the game with Walker, Ruben Dias, Aymeric Laporte and Oleksandr Zinchenko definitely fit to play, while Pep Guardiola will hope Ake and Walker are able to feature.

Squad in full: Carson, Ederson, Steffen, Dias, Ake, Laporte, Walker, Cancelo, Egan-Riley, Zinchenko, Fernandinho, Rodri, Lavia, Gundogan,  De Bruyne, McAtee, Silva, Palmer, Foden, Grealish, Mahrez, Sterling, Jesus.