Man City v Huddersfield team & injury news: Six doubts & nine out of FA Cup tie

Pep Guardiola could hand Kevin De Bruyne his first minutes since August, when Huddersfield Town travel to the Etihad on Sunday.

The Terriers, who sit three points above the drop zone in the Championship, face Manchester City in the FA Cup third round, which could afford Guardiola the opportunity to rest and rotate his squad.

It also feels like the perfect game to ease De Bruyne back in, with the Belgian not featuring for City since the opening weekend of the season due to a long-term hamstring problem. De Bruyne was named on the bench in the last game against Sheffield United and has been back in training for a number of weeks.

Guardiola also confirmed after the 2-0 win over the Blades that Jeremy Doku and Erling Haaland could also be back following recent injuries which forced them to miss the majority of December’s busy schedule. The only player who will definitely miss out is John Stones, with the defender expected to be unavailable the next few weeks after picking up a knock in the recent win over Everton.

As for Huddersfield, Jonathan Hogg should be available after he missed the defeat against Leicester City on New Year’s Day through illness. The midfielder played the last time the two sides met, with City winning 3-0 in January 2019 thanks to goals from Danilo, Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane.

Meanwhile, Darren Moore will hope Ben Jackson and Delano Burgzorg are fit after recent knocks. Lee Nicholls returned from a three-game layoff and featured in the 3-0 defeat against Leicester, but Huddersfield will be without the injured Chris Maxwell, Ollie Turton, Matty Pearson, Josh Ruffles, Kian Harratt, Danny Ward and Pat Jones. Tom Edwards is absent due to personal reasons.

Doubts: Jackson, Hogg, Burgzorg (Huddersfield); De Bruyne, Doku, Haaland (City). Ruled out: Stones (City); Maxwell, Edwards, Turton, Pearson, Ruffels, Harratt, Ward, Jones (Huddersfield).