Manchester City receive major injury boost ahead of West Ham clash

Manchester City’s squad could be close to its full complement when the Blues take on West Ham United this weekend.

Pep Guardiola’s side travel to the capital on Saturday aiming to continue their impressive recent record against the Hammers and they’ve won the last four encounters. City have also emerged victorious from 14 of the last 16 Premier League meetings.

And the champions have started the new campaign excellently, beating Chelsea and Ipswich Town in the opening two games. That was without the talismanic Rodri, without whom City struggled to win last season. But an injury sustained over the summer has prevented him from featuring so far this season. 

“He’s okay, he had an injury with the national team and he still has some niggles, but I saw him yesterday quite highly I’d say,” Guardiola said last Friday when asked about Rodri’s condition. “It’s just a question of today, whether he rejoins the group for the training sessions.”

Whether Rodri returned to training last week is unclear, but the midfielder was spotted back in training on Wednesday. The ex-Atletico Madrid man was pictured in the club’s latest training gallery and could, therefore, be available to travel to West Ham this weekend.

There was further good news on Tuesday with Mateo Kovacic pictured in a separate update on the website. The Croat was replaced in the second half of City’s win over Ipswich on Saturday following a collision with Liam Delap.

“I didn’t speak with the doctors,” Guardiola said after the game. “I think it was a knock. Liam Delap, we know from here, is so aggressive with that. We have six, seven days until the next game and we will see if he can recover.”

It means the only concern ahead of West Ham is Phil Foden. The 24-year-old missed Saturday’s match through illness and has not been seen in any of City's training galleries this week. However, that is not an indication Foden was definitely not involved, and may simply have been out of shot.

Oscar Bobb is the only guaranteed absence for the weekend, with the Norwegian suffering a fractured bone in his leg earlier this month.