Man City vs Aston Villa injury news - two ruled out and one doubt

Manchester City only have one major fitness concern ahead of Sunday’s Premier League clash against Aston Villa.

The champions have lost ground on leaders Arsenal in recent weeks and will hope to bounce back from a run of three defeats in the last four league matches when Villa travel to the Etihad. Pep Guardiola will also have been boosted by the return of Phil Foden to training in midweek.

The England international has missed the last four City matches through injury and illness, with the latter ruling him out of last week’s trip to Tottenham Hotspur. However, even if fully fit, Foden is unlikely to start ahead of Riyad Mahrez and Jack Grealish in the wide areas.

Meanwhile, John Stones is expected to miss out due to a hamstring injury with Guardiola claiming last week that the 28-year-old will be out for around ‘three weeks to a month’ with the issue. Despite Stones’ absence, City have four centre-back options in Ruben Dias, Manuel Akanji, Aymeric Laporte and Nathan Ake.

As for Villa, who have won five of their eight matches since Unai Emery’s appointment, Ashley Young is fit following a recent knock. The former Manchester United defender was replaced with a small problem during last week’s 4-2 defeat to Leicester City, but Emery confirmed on Friday he is available for the weekend.

“Ashley Young, yes, he’s ready,” said the former Arsenal boss. “Bertrand [Traore] only trained today with the team for the first time after two months being injured,” he added. “I think it will be difficult to be involved on Sunday. Maybe, he can come with us and be in the squad. But, to play, is difficult.”

Traore returned to Villa in January following a loan spell at Istanbul Basaksehir during the first of the campaign, but came back with a knee injury that has since prevented him from playing. Meanwhile, Diego Carlos remains out with a long-term problem he picked up after just two weeks of the season, but is set to return to training in the coming weeks.

Doubt: Traore (Villa)

Ruled out: Stones (City); Carlos (Villa)